Nicholas Tosca - Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology

Nicholas Tosca is a professor of mineralogy and petrology at the University of Cambridge (UK). He previously held faculty appointments at the University of Oxford and University of St Andrews, and postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge. He received his Ph.D. in geochemistry in 2007 from Stony Brook University. Dr Tosca’s research focuses on unraveling the processes that shape planetary surfaces and their environments over time. More specifically, Dr. Tosca's research group uses analytical, experimental, and theoretical approaches to understanding how sediments and sedimentary rocks on early Earth and Mars record aspects of paleo-climate and habitability. Dr Tosca served on the International Mars Sample Return Objectives and Samples Team (iMOST), the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return Planning Group, and currently serves on the editorial boards of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta and Sedimentology, the Peer Review College of the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and the awards assessment panel for the Daphne Jackson Trust. Dr Tosca is a recipient of the 2013 Max Hey Medal of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the 2015 MSA Award from the Mineralogical Society of America, and the 2015 Philip Leverhulme Prize from The Leverhulme Trust.