Francis Nimmo - Research Interests
I am interested in how planets and satellites have evolved to their current states, and what explains the planetary diversity we see. For instance, why are Enceladus and Io geologically active, but not Mimas or Callisto? Why do the Earth and Ganymede possess magnetic fields at the present day, while Mars and Europa do not? To answer questions like these requires a combination of present-day observations and geophysical models.
I am working on two main areas right now (click on each image for more details). I am also generally looking for PhD students interested in these (or other) topics.
Although these topics form a lot of my current work, I have various other interests, including the accretion of the terrestrial planets, dynamo generation on asteroids and planets, and tectonic features on Mercury. You can also get an idea of other things I am working on by looking at my published and submitted papers.
In my spare time, I sit on the National Academies’ Decadal Survey satellites panel and am currently a member of the Jupiter Europa Orbiter Science Definition Team.
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences home page
Last Modified: 10th Sept 2010.