Postponed until a new venue is found, geologist Susan Kieffer will lead a discussion on some of the weird features recently observed on Enceladus, one of the satellites of Saturn.
MacArthur fellow and member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Kieffer has degrees in math, physics, geology, and planetary science. Her research centers on “very high speed flows”, including those involved in meterorite impacts, volcanic eruptions and river flooding. She has published models for the eruptions on Jupiter’s moon Io, the lateral blast of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, the dynamics of the Old Faithful geyser, the hydraulics of the Colorado River, and the dynamics of the Chixculub meteor impact that is believed to have caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. She is also co-founder of Kieffer & Woo, Inc., a company specializing in nonlinear data analysis and prediction algorithms.
In her “spare time” she enjoys playing music and she worked with a Phoenix high school teacher to develop a new way of teaching science to a group of homeless and at-risk students—now one of the most popular and self-esteem-building courses at the school.