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Royal Society University Research Fellow / Reader, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester

My scientific objective is to investigate the endogenic and exogenic geological history of the Moon using geochemical techniques. I conduct analytical investigations of lunar samples, and apply my understanding of lunar geological processes to help interpret geochemical remote sensing data from the Moon’s surface.

Cosmochemistry Research

Petrological and geochemical investigations of extra-terrestrial samples:
• I am an Apollo sample Principal Investigator (PI) and a NASA Meteorite Working Group PI (Antarctic meteorites), and have also studied a range of hot desert lunar meteorites.
• I most recently have been working on Apollo 16 regolith breccias and impact melts, Apollo 12 low-Ti mare basalts and a range of lunar meteorite samples (basalts, feldspathic impact melt, regolith breccias).
• I have experience using analytical instrumentation including EDS Scanning Electron Microscopes, WDS electron microprobes (Cameca SX 50 and SX 100) and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and noble gass mass spectrometers (ARGUS VI, MS1).
• I have collaborated with other researchers using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry and Transmission Electron Microscope techniques

Space Mission and Science Team Involvement

I am in the front line of current lunar and planetary science research:
• Co-Investigator - Demonstration of a Compact Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (D-CIXS), which was a payload on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) SMART-1 mission to the Moon.
• Co-Investigator - Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS), with an involvement in the instrument calibration, development of laboratory testing and lunar science data processing and interpretation.
• Co-Investigator - Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) instrument that will fly aboard ESA's BepiColumbo mission to Mercury.
• Science team member of PROSPECT experiment (ESA)
• Co-proposer of the LunarNET mission to ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme 2010.
• Member of the MoonLITE mission concept Science Working Group.
• Member of the UK Penetrator Consortium.

Experience

  • –present
    Royal Society University Research Fellow / Reader, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester