Adriana C. Ocampo: 1955—: Planetary Geologist Biography

Adriana Ocampo, a senior research planetary scientist with the European Space Agency (ESA) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is an expert on remote sensing. Geologists and geographers use remote-sens-ing instruments on Earth to study surface terrain. Ocampo used remote-sensing instruments mounted on spacecraft to study Earth and other planets, moons, comets, and asteroids. Ocampo and other planetary geologists also study extraterrestrial remnants on Earth, such as meteorites. In more than two decades as a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Ocampo worked on several space missions. She also co-discovered the impact crater on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, where scientists believe that an asteroid or comet collided with the Earth 65 million years ago, setting off a chain of events that resulted in the extinction of more than 60% of the planet's species, including the dinosaurs. Ocampo has devoted her energies to improving international cooperation in space exploration and narrowing the space science gap between developed and developing nations.