Isaac Smith

Bio

Dr. Isaac B. Smith joined the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in August 2018 as an Assistant Professor of Earth and Space Science, where he holds a Canada Research Chair in Planetary Science. Prior to joining York University, he was a Research Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Lakewood, Colorado. After completing his Ph.D. in Geosciences in 2013 at the University of Texas at Austin, he received a Fulbright Fellowship to work at Sorbonne University in Paris France for one year. He also completed one post-doc at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. His research interests involve ice on Mars, especially related to present and recent climate. Dr. Smith’s office is PSE 110.

At Lassonde, Dr. Smith intends to continue his ongoing research and add laboratory and field components in his study of ice processes and behaviour. For fieldwork, he is developing a program that will study permafrost features and morphology in the Canadian Arctic and relate the analogue landforms to permafrost features found on Mars. In the lab, he aims to constraint the rheological properties of CO2 ice to study its behaviour as glaciers and albedo effects of CO2 ice as it sinters dues to incident solar radiation. Working with other ices, such as N2 and CH4, two common ices on Pluto, are longer-term goals.

Research Lab
Ice Lab
Location: Petrie, PSE 403
We simulate conditions at Mars’ poles in order to learn about the processes acting on Mars. We also measure the dielectric properties of Martian analogue materials.