Jack William Conrad

Associate Research Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute

Welcome! I recently joined the Planetary Science Institute as an Associate Research Scientist. 

My research interest focus on determining the internal large-scale history and properties of worlds by their external expression (topography, gravity, morphology, etc.).

Caleb Fassett was my postdoc advisor and our works are still going through the review process at a couple of journals. Francis Nimmo was my primary advisor in graduate school. Find PDFs of our published works on Francis' website! For newer (or any) papers feel free to email me for copies.

Contact:  jconrad@psi.edu  (research) or jackwillconrad@gmail.com (everything else)

Major Research Topics:

Pluto and Charon Tectonics

Are Pluto and Charon representative of Kuiper Belt Objects in terms of their tectonic evolution?

Global Scale Topography

Using spherical harmonics and terrain evolution models unveils how topography is the result of interlinked processes.

Lunar Gravity Anomalies

The condition of lunar gravity anomalies relative to topography are one of the best ways to constrain the Moon's thermal history.

Venusian Canali

Channels on the surface of Venus likely formed during transition to its modern climate, but we need to understand them better to be sure.

Lunar Sinuous Rilles

Did these long channels on the lunar surface form by flowing erosion or collapsed lava tubes?

Secondary Cratering

Craters formed from ejecta reveal crustal property changes across geologic boundaries.

Publications:

Conrad, J.W. and Nimmo, F., 2023. Constraining characteristic morphological wavelengths for Venus using Baltis Vallis. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(10), p.e2022GL101268. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL101268

Conrad, J.W., Nimmo, F., Beyer, R.A., Bierson, C.J. and Schenk, P.M., 2021. Heat Flux Constraints From Variance Spectra of Pluto and Charon Using Limb Profile Topography. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 126(2), p.e2020JE006641. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JE006641

Conrad, J. W., Nimmo, F., Schenk, P. M., and others. (2019) An upper bound on Pluto's heat flux from a lack of flexural response of its normal faults. Icarus, Vol. 328 (210-217). DOI:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.03.028

Conrad, J. W., Nimmo, F., Fassett, C. I. and Kamata, S. (2018) Lunar impact history constrained by GRAIL-derived basin relaxation measurements. Icarus, Vol. 314 (50-63). DOI:10.1016/j.icarus.2018.05.029

Beyer, R. A., and others including Conrad, J. W. (2017) Charon tectonics. Icarus, Vol. 287 (161-174) DOI:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.12.018