Via UC Davis:

Based partly on the advice of a UC Davis geologist, the next Mars rover, Curiousity, will land in Gale crater near the Martian equator. The landing site was announced today (July 22) at a press conference at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The site was selected based on the “reachable science” nearby, said Dawn Sumner, professor of geology at UC Davis and co-chair of the landing site working group for the Mars Science Laboratory mission….