Catherine Margaret Corrigan (born 1972), often known as Cari Corrigan, is an American scientist best known as a curator of the

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

collection at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. She is a scientist in the Department of Mineral Science at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

Education

Corrigan obtained a Bachelor of Science in 1995 and a Master of Science in 1998, both in Geology at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. Her master's thesis was titled ''The Composition of Impact Breccias from the Chicxulub Impact Crater, Yucatan Peninsula, Yucatan, Mexico''. She later earned a Ph.D in Planetary Science at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

in 2004 studying carbonate minerals in Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 which suggest the sample came from a surface on Mars that underwent multiple distinct exposures to liquid water, rather than long term exposure in a body of water.

Career

Field work

In 2001 and 2004, Corrigan travelled to Antarctica as a member of

ANSMET ANSMET (Antarctic Search for Meteorites) is a program funded by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation that looks for meteorites in the Transantarctic Mountains. This geographical area serves as a collection point for mete ...

(Antarctic Search for Meteorites) teams. She is a co-author of ''35 seasons of U.S. Antarctic meteorites (1976-2010): a pictorial guide to the collection'' (2014) (OCLC Number: 879851951).

Research and curation

Cari Corrigan was a postdoctoral fellow at

and Applied Physics Lab. In 2004, Corrigan was instrumental in the initial examination and classification of newly discovered Martian meteorite MIL03346, only the seventh known

Nakhlite Nakhlites are a group of Martian meteorites, named after the first one, Nakhla meteorite. Nakhlites are igneous rocks that are rich in augite and were formed from basaltic magma about 1.3 billion years ago. They contain augite and olivine crys ...

. In early 2008, Corrigan was hired to classify meteorites and curate the meteorite collection for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. As a curator, she is responsible for classifying meteorite samples collected in Antarctica for the Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter.

Other professional work

Corrigan helps process and analyze images from the Mars Exploration Rover project's Opportunity rover. Corrigan is a member of the science team working with Moon Zoo, a Zooniverse

citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...

project. She is interested in linking lunar meteorites to impact craters on the lunar surface. On behalf of the Meteoritical Society, Corrigan is editor of the society's contributions to ''Elements'' magazine.

Honors

* The central main-belt asteroid 9924 Corrigan, discovered by American astronomer

Schelte Bus Schelte John "Bobby" Bus (born 1956) is an American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets at the Institute for Astronomy (Hawaii), Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii and deputy director of NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility ...

at the Australian

Siding Spring Observatory Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a coll ...

in 1981, was named after her on 13 April 2017 ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corrigan, Catherine (Cari) American curators American women curators Case Western Reserve University alumni Living people Michigan State University alumni Smithsonian Institution people 1972 births 21st-century American women scientists Planetary scientists Women planetary scientists