Rate My Professor Ellie Sansom

Dr. Ellie Sansom is the Director of the Australian Desert Fireball Network (DFN) and Global Fireball Observatory at Curtin University, serving as Senior Lecturer in the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) and Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences within the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Her research centers on planetary science, particularly meteoroid trajectory analysis, fireball observations, meteorite recovery, and planetary defence. She leads operations of over 50 autonomous cameras covering 3 million square kilometers of the Australian night sky, enabling precise triangulation of meteorite landing locations through advanced data processing, drones, machine learning, and outback fieldwork. Sansom collaborates with the Defence Science and Technology Group and Lockheed Martin to develop technologies for space situational awareness. As a member of NASA's InSight mission science team, she analyzes fireball data to inform impact-seismic studies on Mars. She also contributes to public engagement through media appearances, STEM outreach, and recognition as a role model for women in science.

Sansom earned her PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Curtin University in 2017, with the thesis "Tracking Meteorites in the Atmosphere: Fireball and Trajectory Analysis," funded by an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship. She holds an MSci in Geophysics from Imperial College London (2012), including a year at UCLA, supported by the four-year Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger Scholarship. Her Curtin career began in 2012 as a teaching assistant and casual lecturer in geology, geochemistry, and structural geology. Key publications include "Observation of metre-scale impactors by the Desert Fireball Network" (Devillepoix et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2019), "A global fireball observatory" (Devillepoix et al., Planetary and Space Science, 2020), "Determining Fireball Fates Using the α–β Criterion" (Sansom et al., The Astrophysical Journal, 2019), "The Winchcombe meteorite, a unique and pristine witness from the outer solar system" (King et al., Science Advances, 2022), "3D meteoroid trajectories" (Sansom et al., Icarus, 2019), and "Trajectory, recovery, and orbital history of the Madura Cave meteorite" (Devillepoix et al., Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 2022). Her team's innovations have led to successful meteorite recoveries and expanded global networks. Awards encompass the 2025 Curtin Media Team Award, Athena Swan STEMM Star, 2021 AIPS Tall Poppy, and finalist for Woodside Early Career Scientist of the Year.