معرفی
Professor Tom Zega is a faculty member at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, where he has served since 2011. He directs the Planetary Materials Research Group and holds a primary appointment as Professor, leading federally funded investigations into the origin and evolution of the Solar System’s earliest solids.
Education:
- Ph.D. in Geological Sciences, 2003, Arizona State University
Research Focus:
Dr. Zega couples ultrahigh-resolution ion- and electron-microscopy with computational thermodynamics to decode the chemical and physical histories of planetary materials. His current work concentrates on:
- Refractory inclusions—the first solids to condense from the solar nebula
- Sulfides that record nebular and parent-body processes
- Samples returned by JAXA’s Hayabusa missions to asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu
- NASA’s OSIRIS-REx samples from asteroid Bennu
- Astrobiology, examining organic–mineral associations at the nanometer scale
Research Trends:
Across his 2019-2025 publications, a clear trajectory emerges from fundamental microanalytical method development (e.g., single-standard quantitative EDS) to high-impact studies of pristine astromaterials. The body of work integrates (1) laboratory shock and irradiation experiments, (2) coordinated isotope-microstructure analyses of presolar grains, and (3) comprehensive petrographic surveys of CI- and CM-like Ryugu samples. Collectively, these studies illuminate nebular fractionation, parent-body hydrothermal alteration, and space-weathering pathways.
Scientific Awards & Honors:
No named awards are listed in the supplied text.
Grants & Leadership
- PI, NASA Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples (LARS) – Atomic-scale Analysis of Hayabusa Samples
- PI, NASA PSEF – The Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis
- PI (with Co-Is K. Muralidharan & V. R. Manga), NASA – Characterizing the Role of Solutes and Defects in Refractory Planetary Materials
- Co-I, NASA New Frontiers – OSIRIS-REx Mission
- Co-I, Moore Foundation – Next-generation NanoSIMS for Planetary Materials
Laboratory & Team
The Planetary Materials Research Group operates the Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis, housing FIB-SEM, TEM, and NanoSIMS instrumentation. Current staff scientists include Dr. Jerry Chang and Dr. Ken Domanik; former postdocs Jacob Bernal, Shaofan Che, Pierre Haenecour, Prajkta Mane, and Pierre-Marie Zanetta continue to collaborate on joint publications.
