Francis Nimmo

Francis Nimmo is a Planetary Science Associate Professor at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Education

Nimmo attended Wolverhampton Grammar School and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Geological Sciences from Cambridge University in 1993 and completed his Ph.D. on Volcanism and Tectonics on Venus from Cambridge in 1996.

Career

His research focuses on the origin and evolution of solid body surfaces and interiors from observations and geophysical modelling. Some of his research achievements include his showing that a giant impact could have generated the Martian hemispheric dichotomy, identification of shear-heating as an important process on Enceladus, Europa and Triton and the explanation of the link between plate tectonics and dynamo activity on Mars and Venus. Nimmo received the Harold C. Urey Prize and the James B. Macelwane Medal in 2007.