At the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Aster is Professor of Geophysics, the Chair of Earth and Environmental Science, and the Geophysics Program Coordinator in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science. Aster earned his Masters in Geophysics from the UW Madison and his PhD in Earth Sciences from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Aster serves on the Seismological Society of America’s Board of Directors. He received the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Service Medal in 1999.