Susan Conway

I have been a Post Doctoral Research Associate in Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University since 2012. I am interested in studying the surfaces of planetary bodies and the processes that shape them. This can tell us about how water is distributed around the solar system, therefore how the solar system and eventually life developed. My current project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and involves comparing the topography of Earth, the Moon and Mars. The objective is to find out how gullies and other landscapes on Mars form, by comparing them to wet places on the Earth and dry places on the Moon. Whether water plays a role in shaping the martian landscape, has long been debated, as water should boil or freeze under current martian conditions. To decide if a landscape is formed by water, people usually rely on comparing images of different planets. My work goes one step further by using the 3D shape, or topography to differentiate between the action of different dry and wet processes.

I started out my academic career by gaining an MSci degree in Natural Sciences (Geology) at Cambridge University and obtained my PhD in planetary science from the Open University in 2010. After two years working as a Post Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Nantes, France, I came back to the Open University to start my present contract.