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Major international journals publish recent papers by two PhD students

Congratulations to Jennifer Harris and Abigail Calzada for getting their planetary sciences PhD research published by Icarus and Meteoritics and Planetary Science journals.

Jennifer Harris and Abigail Calzada, PhDs in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, have successfully published papers based on their research studies in the journals Icarus and Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

Jennifer Harris’s PhD research involved work on a prototype of the UK led PanCam instrument. the ‘eyes’ of the European Space Agency (ESA)/Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) ExoMars Rover, currently scheduled for launch in 2018. The jointly published paper used results from fieldwork trials in Iceland in 2013 which tested the ability of the PanCam instrument to positively identify a hydrothermal environment. The trials also tested various data analysis techniques to establish a best practice routine for the data that will ultimately be sent back from Mars.

Jennifer commented that having her PhD work published in such a high profile planetary science journal gave her a real sense of achievement, as well as the impetus to push her research even further.

Abigail Calzada’s PhD work focused on laboratory analysis of lunar meteorites and remote sensing techniques. The published paper reported on her research to locate the launch areas of 48 lunar meteorites to reveal their geological context. This involved creating a software application to match the composition of the meteorites with the Gamma-Ray spectrometer dataset on board NASA's Luna Prospector Mission. The information obtained may not only give us information about the geological history of these rocks, but it may also provide valuable clues in understanding the evolution of the Moon. Abigail reported that seeing her research published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science journal was both an acknowledgement of past efforts and an inspiration for future study.

[Photo: ExoMars 2018 Rover]

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