Dan Hallatt

About

Dan Hallatt successfully defended a MASc in nuclear engineering at Ontario Tech University (Oshawa, Canada) in 2019. In 2017 he completed a BEng in materials engineering at McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada). Currently, Dan is engaged in research towards earning a cotutelle PhD under the supervision of Professor Hugues Leroux at the Université de Lille (France) and Professor Mark Burchell and Dr. Penny Wozniakiewicz at the University of Kent. The title of his doctoral thesis is expected to be ‘Thermal and shock behaviour of phyllosilicates; application to the Ryugu asteroid’. With this, Dan is highly enthused with the opportunity to explore a longstanding passion of his and begin a research career in the planetary sciences.

Research interests

One of Dan’s primary research interests is concerned with the formation and evolution of bodies within our solar system and our place within it. Dan hopes that, from a materials science perspective, he can help provide experimental evidence for the community to come closer to answering such questions. As the inspiration of his PhD research, material like that from cometary and asteroidal bodies is surmised to have possibly avoided the relatively severe geological and/or chemical environments that have likely changed the planets since their formation. Instead, material such as that expected to be returned from the asteroid (162173) Ryugu presents a possibly unrivalled fingerprint into the spatial and temporal depths of our solar system.

Dan is therefore interested in exploring the aspects of the space environment that are present around small bodies and which potentially alter some of the most primitive materials in the solar system. By simulating their local environment with tools such as the light gas gun, Dan hopes not only to improve the interpretation and understanding of such material’s reaction to the environment of space, but also its ability to maintain a role as an empirical messenger from times past. With a freedom of experimental parameters in the lab, and the use of characterization techniques such as scanning- and transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and spectroscopy, it may be possible to help constrain the conditions for planetary formation in the early solar system and possibly trace the history of mineralogical species and their constituents such as water.

Conference Talks and Posters

• Hallatt, D., Wozniakiexwicz, P. J., Burchell, M. J., Leroux, H. (2023), How do Ryugu-inspired phyllosilicates respond to micro-mechanical impact?, LPSC LIV, Abstract #2084, talk
• Hallatt D., Leroux, H., Dubois, E., Braud, F., (2022) Exploring the response of Ryugu-inspired phyllosilicates to a pulsed laser, LPSC LIII, Abstract #2568, talk
• Hallatt D, Leroux, H., Roussel, P., (2021) Preliminary results of exploring the behaviour of phyllosilicates when subject to thermal conditions relevant to asteroid Ryugu, LPSC LII, Abstract #2518, poster