Presentation:  Virtual Tour of the World Largest Meteorite Collection at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna Austria

Abstract:   This presentation will treat us to one of the most prestigious collection of meteorites in the world.  Along with samples from every continent on Earth, the collection also contains meteorites from Mars and rocks from the Moon.  

Speaker: Dr. Ludovic Ferrière

Currently, Dr. Ludovic Ferrière is chief curator of the prestigious meteorite collection and of

the impactite collection at the Natural History Museum Vienna (Austria).

Dr. Ferrière has so far confirmed, together with colleagues, four meteorite impact craters (i.e.,

Keurusselkä in Finland, Luizi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Hummeln in Sweden,

and Yallalie in Australia) and has also discovered and classified a number of meteorites (in

Egypt and in Uruguay). 

He is author and co-author of about 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers published in

international journals, over 200 abstracts presented at international conferences, and of a book on meteorites [see also: www.meteorimpactonearth.com ].

Born in France in 1982, Dr. Ludovic Ferrière developed an early interest in rocks and

minerals. At the University of Tours (France), his passion for meteorite impact cratering was

really born, so he spent a year at the University Laval (Quebec, Canada) to study geology and

explore nearby craters during his spare time. Returning to France he did a one-year course on

Planetology at the University of Nantes. During summer 2004 he traversed Canada from east

to west, stopping at several impact sites on the way. Then, he completed a Master in

Planetology at the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris (France), and learnt about

meteorites at the Museum of Natural History. He finally completed his PhD thesis in Vienna

(Austria) in 2009, on the geological and geochemical aspects of impactites from the

Bosumtwi crater (Ghana), before to move again to Canada for his postdoctoral researches on

shatter cones and associated shock-induced microdeformations in minerals (at the University

of Western Ontario, London).