The Ed Scott Lecture Series is a tribute to Ed Scott who died in 2021. It is comprised of online lectures, each dealing with developments in a particular field of meteorite studies. The lectures will be presented for a general scientific audience so that members of the Meteoritical Society can learn about questions that drive research in areas outside their own. The series is supported by a donation from Ed’s family.
The Ed Scott Lecture Series is organized through the Membership Committee.
Connection information is provided to MetSoc members via email. Lectures are recorded and made publicly available here
Upcoming Lectures
Tuesday November 24th at 8pm UTC (GMT)
Characterization of Early Solar System Brines
Michael Zolensky, NASA
The search for life in the solar system and beyond has become a major research focus, with much effort devoted to finding evidence for liquid H2O and reduced carbon-bearing (organic) species in extraterrestrial samples. The most direct and convincing evidence for the presence of water and organic molecules is provided by fluid inclusions (FI) trapped in minerals that formed on early solar system bodies. Progress in the identification and chemical and isotopic characterization of aqueous fluid inclusions in astromaterials will be described. Focus will be on samples recently returned from asteroids and the Phobos regolith samples to be provided by the Martian Moons eXploration Mission.
About the speaker: Michael Zolensky is one the world’s foremost experts in extraterrestrial sample analysis. Based at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, he is curator of the NASA Stardust, Hayabusa and spacecraft micro-impact sample collections. His research is particularly focused on the characterization of chemical weathering processes on asteroids and associated meteorites, and on defining the primitive mineralogy of comets. He is currently leading efforts to locate and characterize aqueous fluid inclusions in a wide range of astromaterials. He has led, or participated in, successful meteorite recovery expeditions on five continents and developed techniques for the characterization of meteoroid and space debris impact features on spacecraft. Mike directed the research campaign to delineate the impact record of the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) satellite. He also managed sample analysis teams for the Stardust comet coma dust return mission, and the Hayabusa asteroid regolith sample return mission. He was a member of the Hayabusa2 mission initial science team and is currently a member of the Sample Analysis Working Team for the JAXA Mars Moons eXploration (MMX) Mission. Mike is a Fellow and past president of The Meteoritical Society and was awarded the 2020 Leonard Medal. He was the recipient of the 2023 ISAS award from the Institute for Space and Astronautical Science. He is also a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America and the American Geophysical Union. Mike (height 2m) is the namesake of minor planet 6030/Zolensky (diameter four orders of magnitude larger than Mike) and the mineral Zolenskyite (four orders of magnitude smaller than Mike).
Past Lectures
- Oct. 1, 2026, 12:00 pm Bennu and the OSIRIS-REx Mission: Insights from an Ancient Asteroid
- Jun. 11, 2026, 12:00 pm Analysis of Interplanetary Dust from Kuiper Belt Objects
- Feb. 26, 2026, 12:00 pm Chondrules and their importance in the early Solar System
- Dec. 18, 2025, 12:00 pm The abundance and importance of Type 1 material in the Solar System
- Jul. 3, 2025, 12:00 pm Short-Lived Radionuclides in Meteorites and the Sun's Birth Environment