Rate My Professor Nick Timms

Associate Professor Nick Timms is a prominent researcher in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences within the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where he serves as Director of the Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC). He specializes in mineralogy and structural geology, with key research interests in rock and mineral deformation, geochronology, impact cratering, and extra-terrestrial geology. Timms is a principal lead in SSTC's impact cratering research, studying the impact histories of solar system bodies including Earth, Mars, the Moon, and Vesta. He holds the role of Mission Scientist for NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and is a member of the Center for Lunar Origin and Evolution (CASA Moon) team within NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). His work has contributed to breakthroughs such as the analysis of pristine asteroid samples revealing salts from the early solar system and the identification of shock features in lunar zircon.

Timms earned an Honours degree in Geology from the University of Liverpool in 1997 and a PhD in Geology from James Cook University in 2002 for his thesis on the tectonic evolution through microstructures in the Orford to Piermont area of the New England Appalachians, western central New Hampshire. His career trajectory includes a Royal Academy of Engineering Anglo-Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship and Research Skills Trainer role at the University of Liverpool (2002-2004), followed by progression at Curtin University as ARC Linkage International Fellow (2004-2005), Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Associate (2005-2010), Senior Researcher (2010-2013), Senior Lecturer (2013-2019), and Associate Professor since 2019. He has published extensively on planetary materials and deformation processes, with highly cited papers including "The application of electron backscatter diffraction and orientation contrast imaging in the SEM to textural problems in rocks" (American Mineralogist, 1999), "Timing of crystallization of the lunar magma ocean constrained by the oldest zircon" (Nature Geoscience, 2009), "SHRIMP U–Pb age constraints on magmatism and high-grade metamorphism in the Salem Block, southern India" (Gondwana Research, 2009), "A pressure-temperature phase diagram for zircon at extreme conditions" (Earth-Science Reviews, 2017), and "FracPaQ: A MATLAB™ toolbox for the quantification of fracture patterns" (Journal of Structural Geology, 2017). These contributions have significantly influenced understanding of solar system evolution and planetary defence strategies.