Antarctica is a fascinating and unique place for the discovery of meteorites.
A place where meteorites can and do retain their original characteristics unchanged. This, because of the minimal moisture present in this unique frozen desert. More than 24,000 meteorites have been found in Antarctica as part of the NASA-funded Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) mission, and their study gives us information about the creation and evolution of our material system, planets, satellites, asteroids.
Mr. Baziotis will talk about his unique experience, as he was a member of the eight-member ANSMET Mission in Antarctica. He will also talk about the few chances a man has of becoming a member of ANSMET and the time it took from the time of the first application to his final acceptance into the mission. He will also refer extensively to the space-time journey to the first stages of the creation of our solar system that Mr. Baziotis and his team see taking place every day – through the study of meteorites – in the Mineralogy-Geology laboratory of the Department of Natural Resources Utilization and Agricultural Engineering of the Department of Agriculture University of Athens.
At the end of his speech, Dr. Baziotis will try to give, his own, alternative route to the realization of the goals of a new person. Therefore, he makes an effort to break down the concept of life into components. One of these components – among others – are our dreams, our goals. It will show that we should never give up on the realization of our goals, while with patience and perseverance we will overcome the obstacles that will come.
At the end of the lecture, the attendees will have the opportunity to see, photograph and touch real meteorites from Mr. Baziotis’ collection.
Ioannis Baziotis was born in Athens in 1980. In 1998 he started as a student at the Geology Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He graduated from the Department of Geology in 2002, and received his PhD from the School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in 2008. He has prepared three postdoctoral researches in the period 2008-2014. In 2012 he went to America where, under the guidance of Larry Taylor, -one of the best Scientists in Planetary Science-, he published a report on the most important meteorite originating from the planet Mars, Tissint. The research was funded by NASA. His research on West American mantle xenoliths was included in the NSRF good practice projects.
In 2014, he was hired as a lecturer in Mineralogy-Petrology at the Department of Natural Resources Utilization and Agricultural Engineering, of the Agricultural University of Athens, in 2016 he became an Assistant Professor, while from February 2023 until today he is an Associate Professor. Dr. Ioannis Baziotis is active internationally, with participation in conferences as an invited speaker, in Universities, and speeches for the general public. He has a rich scientific work, with many of his papers published in journals with a high validity index. It has developed collaborations with numerous Universities (e.g. Caltech, Open University, China University of Geosciences) and Organizations (e.g. NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Natural History Museum of Vienna) abroad, most of which are supported by National or International – funded – programs.
He is an evaluator of Scientific journals, and research postdoctoral programs for the NASA organization. In 2021, he was dismissed as a member of the Organizing Committee of the APECS organization for the organization of Antarctica Day. Finally, he has given numerous speeches at a popular level (e.g. TEDx AUAthens, TEDx Komotinis, Bodossaki Lectures on demand, etc.).
