Name: Zhiyong Xiao

Position: Associate Professor

Office: Haiqin No.2 A214

Email: xiaozhiyong at mail.sysu.edu.cn

Areas of Interest:

Impact cratering, impact chronology, planetary surface processes

Research Overview:

My research focuses on the surface evolution of terrestrial bodies in the Solar System. I take an interdisciplinary approach to understand the physics behind planetary surface processes. A primary goal of my study is to unlock the geological history of planetary bodies using knowledge gained from field investigation, geomorphology, mineralogy and petrology, laboratory geochemical analyses, and numerical simulation. Besides research duties on lunar and deep space missions (e.g., the Chinese Chang’E-3 and 4 missions, the Tianwen-1 mission, and the MESSENGER mission), my primary research interest is impact cratering, which mainly contains three parts: (1) study the impact history of solar system bodies, calibrate the age determination technique using crater statistics; (2) decipher unknown processes during impact cratering; (3) search for potential impact craters in China, especially the source crater of the Australasian Strewn Field of tektites and microtektites.