NASA Funded Program
Lawrence A. Taylor (Principal Investigator) at the Planetary Geosciences Institute, University of Tennessee and Mikhail Nazarov at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry in Moscow, Russia, have a NASA grant to study Lunar and Martian meteorites jointly. Taylor’s Group, including Mahesh Anand (Research Associate), Prinya Promprated (Research Associate), Joshua Cahill (MS. Candidate), and Cara Thompson (M.S. Candidate) have been working on Mineralogy and Petrology of Martian Meteorite Dhofar 019 and several Lunar Meteorites, Dhofar 025, 026, 081, 280, 287, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, and 307.
Nazarov’s group, including Marina Ivanova (Research Geochemist) and Svetlana Demidova (Ph.D. Candidate) are also studying various aspects of these Lunar Meteorites. These meteorites were collected by the Russian scientists in the hot desert regions of Oman, just south of Saudi Arabia. Our collaborative program gives both Taylor and Nazarov the first opportunity to research these invaluable samples of other worlds. The results from these studies are presented regularly at the Lunar Planetary Sciences Conferences and Meteoritical Society Meetings.
Dr. Larry Taylor and Dr. Misha Nazarov at the Lunar Planetary Sciences Conference(LPSC) receiving the award for the best presentation at the Chili Cook off.
Dr. Marina Ivanova (Research Scientist at the Vernadsky Inst.) and Ms. Svetlana Demidova (Ph.D. Student, Moscow) at the LPSC, Houston
Dr. Andre Ivanov (Vernadsky), Dr. Larry Taylor(UT) and Dr. Alexander Basilevsky(Vernadsky) at the LPSC, Houston