Guest speaker: Dr. Monika Kress - Professor of Physics and Astronomy at San Jose State University
Introduction: Dr. Olenka Hubickyj
Overview:
Meteorites fall on the Earth at a rate of 30,000 Kg per year. Antarctica is an ideal hunting-ground for these precious samples of other worlds, so each year, the National Science Foundation funds a handful of scientists to search the icy wastelands to recover as many meteorites as possible. In this talk, Dr. Kress will discuss the science of meteorites and what it was like to camp out for two months in the most inhospitable place on Earth.
Dr. Monika Kress has made a habit, if not career, of exploring the furthest corners of the Earth in the name of science (and fun). She earned her PhD in theoretical astrophysics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1997, then became a Postdoctoral Research Associate at NASA Ames Research Center. From there, she moved to Seattle to join the University of Washington's Astrobiology team in 2000. She became a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at San Jose State in 2004.
