Phil Bland

Phil Bland is Professor of Planetary Science at Curtin University. He came to Curtin in 2012 on an Australian Laureate Fellowship. Previously he was director of the planetary research centre at Imperial College London. Bland established the multi award-winning Fireballs in the Sky outreach and citizen science program in 2013, which won the Australian Government Eureka Prize in 2016. In 2015 Bland established a partnership between NASA and Australia in planetary, space and exploration science. Curtin now formally represents the Australian planetary community to NASA. In 2017 Bland initiated the Binar Space Program in order to develop a WA spacecraft engineering capability, and in 2018, the Curtin Space Science and Technology Centre. SSTC is now the largest planetary science group in the Southern Hemisphere. SSTC flew its first spacecraft in August 2021. Three more followed in 2024. Phil has been on six planetary mission science teams. In 2006, Asteroid ‘1981 EW21’ was renamed ‘(6580) Philbland’ in recognition of his contributions to space and planetary science. He was named Western Australia Scientist of the Year in 2019. His goal is to see Australia take its place amongst space faring nations by leading our own science missions.