Clark Chapman
Clark Chapman is a senior scientist in the Department of Space Studies at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He currently sits on the board of directors of the B612 Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for near-Earth object education. He is a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Meteoritical Society, and a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Task Force on Planetary Defense.
Chapman is past chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society and past president of Commission 15 (Physical Properties of Asteroids and Comets) of the International Astronomical Union. He served in an advisory position to many NASA near-Earth object studies and on the National Research Council (NRC) Committee to Review Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies. He was part of the NRC Task Group on Sample Return from Small Solar System Bodies, and the Study Team on Primitive Bodies.
Chapman's research has often focused on small bodies (especially asteroids) and on impact cratering of planetary surfaces. He obtained his Ph.D. in planetary science at MIT, writing a thesis on spectral reflectance studies of asteroids. In 1999, Chapman received the DPS Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Sciences.
Related Resources from Clark Chapman
The Hazard of Near-Earth Asteroid Impacts on Earth
Earth and Planetary Science Letters 222, March 2004
Related Resources by Clark Chapman from the Natural Hazards Library
Threat Mitigation: The Asteroid Tugboat
With Russell Schweickart, Dan Durda, and Piet Hut, paper presented at NASA NEO Workshop, 2006
How a Near-Earth Object Impact Might Affect Society
Paper presented at Workshop on Near Earth Objects: Risks, Policies, and Actions, January 2003