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Origin of the moon

23 - 24 September 2013 09:00 - 17:00

Scientific discussion meeting organised by Professor Alex Halliday FRS and Professor David Stevenson FRS

Event details

Despite widespread acceptance of the giant impact hypothesis for lunar origin, our understanding continues to be challenged by remarkable new geochemical data, improved simulations and theory, and spacecraft exploration. This will be a timely consideration of our current understanding, how this relates to our Earth and planetary systems and an opportunity to identify the directions of future research.

Download the meeting programme   

Recorded audio of the presentations are now available and the papers will be published in a future issue of Philosophical Transactions A. 

Enquiries: Contact the events team

Organisers

  • Professor David Stevenson FRS, Caltech, USA

    David Stevenson is the Marvin L. Goldberger Professor of Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology and is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. A native of New Zealand, his early work was in the condensed matter physics of planetary interiors, especially giant planets, but his wide ranging career has included contributions to the interpretation of planetary magnetic fields, the formation of planetary cores, melt migration, the origin of the Moon and numerous aspects of planetary and satellite formation, evolution and structure. He was involved in the Cassini mission and is a Co-Investigator and group leader in the Juno mission, currently in orbit at Jupiter. Awards include Fellowship in the Royal Society (London), membership of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the Urey Prize (American Astronomical Society) and Hess Medal (American Geophysical Union).

  • Professor Alex Halliday FRS, Vice President (Physical Secretary), the Royal Society

    Professor Alex Halliday has been Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division at Oxford University since October 2007.

    Before coming to Oxford, he spent twelve years as a professor at the University of Michigan and then six years in Switzerland, where he was Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at the ETH in Zürich. In 2004 he took up the Chair of Geochemistry at Oxford, where his research involves the use of isotopic methods to study Earth and planetary processes.

    Professor Halliday is a former President of the Geochemical Society and of the European Association for Geochemistry. He has experience with a range of top science boards and advisory panels including those of the Natural Environment Research Council, the Natural History Museum London, the Max Planck Society, the Royal Society and the American Geophysical Union.

    An enthusiast for technological innovation, most of Professor Halliday's recent research is in developing and using new mass spectrometry techniques to shed light on the origin and early development of the solar system and recent earth processes, such as continental erosion and climate. However, he has also been engaged in other studies, such as the mechanisms of volcanic eruptions, and the formation of mineral and hydrocarbon deposits.

    Professor Halliday's scientific accomplishments have been recognised with awards including the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society, the Bowen Award of the American Geophysical Union and the Urey Medal of the European Association of Geochemistry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2000.