Rate My Professor Aaron Cavosie

Dr. Aaron Cavosie is a geologist, geochemist, and planetary scientist serving as Senior Lecturer in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, where he is a member of the Space Science and Technology Centre. He earned his PhD in Geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, an MS in Geology from the University of New Mexico in 2001, and a BS in Geology from the same institution in 1998. His career includes roles as Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University from 2015 to 2019, Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez from 2015, and principal supervisor for PhD, MS, and BS thesis students. Cavosie has secured research funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, NASA, the Australian Research Council—including as Chief Investigator on ARC Discovery Project DP190103849—and other agencies.

Cavosie's research focuses on the geochemistry, microstructure, and geochronology of accessory minerals such as zircon, applied to endogenic and exogenic processes, including the origin of granite, Earth's oldest rocks, meteorites, asteroid impact structures, and planetary geology. He has authored over 80 peer-reviewed papers, garnering more than 7,300 citations. Key publications include "Zircon trace element evidence for early hydrothermal activity on Mars" (2024), "Evidence for oceans pre-4300 Ma confirmed by preserved igneous compositions in Hadean zircon" (2024), "Contemporaneous mobile- and stagnant-lid tectonics on the Hadean Earth" (2026), and "Zircon evidence for exogenous water delivery to the lunar interior" (2026). His contributions have illuminated shock metamorphism in minerals, Hadean Earth tectonics, ancient water activity on Mars, and impact crater ages. Cavosie was elected Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America in 2023 and received Curtin University's Teaching Excellence in Applied Geology award and Media Collaboration Champion award in 2025.