Robert Read Distinguished Lecture Event

Keynote Talk: "Curiosity and Perseverance: Expanding our Understanding of the Martian Surface" - Keynote Speaker, Dr. Linda Kah

Dr. Linda Kah is a Kenneth R. Walker Professor of carbonate sedimentology and geochemistry in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She earned her B.S. (1990) and M.S. (1990) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. (1997) at Harvard University, with her Postdoctoral Fellowship (1998-1999) at the University of Missouri. With her students, she focuses on integrating sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochemistry, and microbial ecology in understanding the evolution of the Earth's biosphere. Dr. Kah's primary research projects include reconstructing the ocean-atmospheric oxygenation and the redox structure of Mesoproterozoic shallow marine systems, exploring the effects of changing ocean circulation on the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), characterizing microbe-mineral interactions in the mineralization of Holocene lacustrine microbialites, and investigating the process of early diagenetic silicification in Proterozoic microbial systems. After more than 20 years as an Earth-based field geologist, Dr. Kah reached out and began investigating potential habitable environments in extraterrestrial systems. She serves as a coinvestigator on both the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover mission and the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission. On these missions, she strives to understand how we can best constrain our interpretations of martian environments with only limited data. 

Below is a teaser for Dr. Kah’s presentation "Curiosity and Perseverance: Expanding our Understanding of the Martian surface."

The Viking missions to Mars in the mid-1970s fundamentally changed our understanding of the planet. Prior to that time, generally blurry images of long, linear “canals” fed our imaginations as we concocted visions of cities. But once Viking sent back a single high-quality image of the surface, our views changed. It was clear that the martian surface was nowhere near as habitable as we had hoped. Now, 50 years later, we continue to develop our picture of Mars. Mars is, once again, showing its Earth-like side: complex stratigraphy, vertical and lateral facies changes, and unconformities whose duration is indeterminate. In this talk, we will focus on some of these changing paradigms, but will also critically explore the development and dangers of bias in interpretation of extraterrestrial planetary surfaces.

SCHEDULE:

6:00PM - Networking/Cocktail Hour

7:00PM - Dinner

7:45PM - Keynote Talk, Dr. Linda Kah

Valet parking will be available. Dress is business casual to business professional.

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