2015 SCUGOG Lecture
The Department of Earth Sciences, Western University is pleased to announce the 15th Annual SCUGOG Lecture in Earth Sciences. Our speaker this year is Dr. Jack F. Mustard from Brown University, who will be discussing:
EXPLORING MARS IN SEARCH OF HABITATS
Date: Thursday, February 12th at 7:00 pm
Location: Middlesex College Room MC 105B
Free parking is available in the Middlesex lot, right under the clock tower!
All are also invited to an open reception in the Grad Club, Middlesex College, at 8:15 pm following the SCUGOG lecture.
Abstract: Was Mars ever habitable? What makes a place habitable? These questions are at the forefront of exploring the Red Planet for the most suitable environments where the signs of past habitability may be preserved, and if there were any inhabitants. I will examine the criteria for exploring these questions, delving into the evidence from orbiting and landed spacecraft that is revealing major new insights and perspectives. And lastly, what are our next steps?
Biography: Professor "Jack" F. Mustard, Department of Earth Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University.
Professor Mustard joined the faculty of Brown University in July 1996. He received a BSc in Geology from the University of British Columbia in 1984 and a PhD from Brown University in 1990. His interdisciplinary research seeks to understand the processes that modify and shape the surface of the Earth and other planetary bodies. For Earth, this involves studying coupled natural-human systems while for planets such as Mars and the Moon this is through the study of crustal composition, surface composition and surface processes. He is a member of NASA’s Land Use Land Cover Change Science Team and has been involved in the exploration of Mars since 1989 and is a member of the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and OMEGA on European Mars Express. He has served on national NASA and National Academy of Sciences committees, most recently as a member of the Space Studies Board and he chaired the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team in 2014. Jack has been honored with the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal in 2012, elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011 and elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2014.
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/html_pages/mustard.htm
http://research.brown.edu/myresearch/John_Mustard
The SCUGOG Lecture was established through the generosity of an anonymous donor; it seeks to highlight geological work of broad public interest by Canadian Earth Scientists.
