FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Vincent Chevrier will discuss the most significant results of the exploration of Mars and their implications for the evolution of its surface, and ultimately for the past or present presence of life. His presentation is one of the fall 2007 Arkansas Public Lectures in Space and Planetary Science and will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov.14, in the Space Center Auditorium (MUSE 201). Admission is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served after the talk.

Chevrier, a postdoctoral researcher at the Space Center in the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Space Simulation, will present a lecture titled “Formation and Evolution of the Surface of Mars.” Three decades of Mars landers and orbiters have now observed, mapped and characterized the surface of Mars.  Scientists’ vision of the surface of Mars has therefore profoundly changed over time, from a dry and desert-like present to an Earth-like humid and hospitable potential past. 

Chevrier received his doctorate from C.E.R.E.G.E. in Aix-en-Provence, France, in May 2004. Chevrier’s research deals with rock magnetism, soil formation and evolution, Martian soil mineralogy, alteration phases, meteorites, sulfide mineralogy and sulfur geochemistry.

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