Impacts! Rocks from space colliding with planets

Speaker: Associate Professor Katarina Miljkovic 
Affiliation: Curtin University

Abstract

It was only during the mid-20th century that impact craters on Earth were confirmed as originating from rocks which arose in outer space. Since then, space missions have brought back data from similar phenomena affecting the crusts of other planetary bodies. These impact events play a key element in planetary evolution, including that of Earth. In her lectures, A/Prof Miljkovic will outline her modelling work on impact processes, cratering mechanics and shock physics applied to geological materials. She will further discuss how her numerical modelling compares with data from space missions such as NASA’s GRAIL and InSight. A/Prof Katarina Miljkovic is a planetary scientist with expertise in numerical and experimental impact physics and a passionate advocate for studying science. She joined Curtin University in 2015 under a Curtin Research Fellowship. She is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and she teaches in the Advanced Science course. Prior to joining Curtin, she graduated from the University of Belgrade in 2006 in astrophysics and obtained her PhD from the Open University in the UK in 2010. She has held postdoctoral roles at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris in France, and Imperial College London in UK. A/Prof Miljkovic has won several competitive awards, including an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship, an Australian L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Fellowship and a WA Tall Poppy Young Scientist of the Year award. The AIP Women in Physics (WIP) Lecture Tour celebrates the contribution of women to advances in physics. This annual award recognises a woman who has made a significant contribution in a field of physics. Lecturers offer presentations, including school lectures, public lectures and research colloquia, in Canberra and each of the six Australian State capital cities and surrounding regions.