Philipp R. Heck, Ph.D.

Dr. Philipp R. Heck is the curator in charge for the meteorite and physical geology collections at the Field Museum. He heads the Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies established in 2009 by a grant from the Tawani Foundation, where he directs the research program in meteoritics. He is also a member of the Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry, which promotes collaboration among cosmochemists at the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Field Museum.

Heck’s research currently focuses on presolar grains to understand our parent stars, and on the delivery history of extraterrestrial matter to Earth, in particular by studying fossil meteorites and micrometeorites found in sediments, and terrestrial impact craters. He is strongly engaged in applying new analytical techniques such as the atom probe to cosmochemistry. He supervises high school and undergraduate students enrolled in internships at the Field Museum. He is a co-supervisor and committee member for graduate students from the University of Chicago, Lund University, and ETH Zurich.

To learn more about Dr. Heck and his work, please visit his Field Museum Staff Profile.