Professor
H. Jay Melosh
(
–
)
1947
2020
Purdue University
;
West Lafayette, IN
Geophysicist; Educator
Area
Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Specialty
Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Earth Sciences
Elected
2011
Book, Impact Cratering: A Geologic Process (1989), explained the importance of extraterrestrial impacts in shaping Earth. Helped explain how meteorites migrate from the moon and Mars, how enormous landslides travel tens of miles down very shallow slopes, and how a large impact to Earth may have killed dinosaurs and most species 65 million years ago. Creator of numerical simulations and models for NASA's Deep Impact mission, which successfully cratered comet Tempel 1 in 2005. Member, National Academy of Sciences (2003).
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