Dr. Cem Berk Senel

PROJECT TITLE

Modeling Impact Processes at Multiscale: From asteroid interiors to planetary habitability and evolution

PROJECT SUMMARY

My research explores in interconnected steps the impact cratering phenomena across a broad range of energy scales in the inner Solar System. Starting from small-scale impacts on near-Earth rubble­pile asteroids, it scales up to first the larger-scale Chicxulub asteroid impact that changed life on Earth 66 million years ago, then to possible large impact(s) that may have changed the habitability of Mars at Late Noachian to Hesperian epoch (~ 3.8-3.0 Ga). The novel results from the Chicxulub scientific drilling project and NASA’s DART planetary defense mission, combined with state-of-art cratering models developed in this project, reveal asteroid intrinsic properties and the effects of impact processes that caused the last terrestrial mass extinction and possibly shaped planetary evolution of Mars. 

EDUCATION

PhD - Multisacale Modeling of Planetary Boundary Layers on Earth and Mars, Royal Observatory of Belgium & Université Libre de Bruxelles (2023)

Post-graduate Research Master - Atmospheric Turbulence Modeling, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (2 018)
 

MSc - Thermo-Fluids, Istanbul Technical University (2016)
 

BSc - Mechanical Engineering, Istanbul Technical University (2014)

KEYWORDS

• Global circulation models of planetary atmospheres

• Modeling impact processes

• Paleoclimate modeling

• Chicxulub impact

• Near-Earth asteroids

• Planetary evolution and habitability

• Radiative transfer

• Aerosol microphysics

• Turbulence modeling

• Planetary boundary layers, dust and water cycle

• Mars exploration missions.
   

SUPERVISORS

Prof. Philippe Claeys and Dr. Ozgur Karatekin