MOSI in Tampa hosted a very special guest Sunday -- Dr. Adriana Ocampo, best known for her advancement of the theory that the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by an asteroid strike.
- Ocampo and her colleagues discovered crater from strike in 1988
- Evidence upended prevailing theory on dinosaur extinction
- Ocampo now leads NASA's Planetary Science Division
Ocampo shared some of her experiences with an audience at MOSI: how in 1988 she and her team discovered a massive crater buried beneath Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. She and her team concluded an asteroid hit the earth 66 million years ago, causing the crater and eventually the extinction of the dinosaurs.
"There’s nothing like viewing something for the first time and getting an insight, that perhaps it wasn’t known before," said Ocampo. "That second of discovery was an extraordinary experience."
She said when she and her team presented their findings and conclusions, lots of people doubted her.
“Because of the controversy, nobody, the science community didn’t really want to accept that an impact had caused a mass extinction and the extinction of the dinosaurs. The main theory of the time was climate change,” said Ocampo.
After several trips to the peninsula, however, her team was able to prove with irrefutable evidence that it did in fact happen. Those efforts have lead. She’s now a planetary geologist and Lead Program Executive for NASA’s Planetary Science Division.
Ocampo was born in Barranquilla, Colombia and raised in Argentina. It wasn’t until she moved with her family to California as a teenager that she was able to pursue her dream of space exploration.
This year, MOSI awarded Ocampo the National Hispanic Scientist of the Year award. She called the award an honor and a surprise, and hopes to see more diversity in the field.
“I hope to inspire the next generation of scientists, especially young women,” Dr. Ocampo said.