From NASA to UNAB: Dr. Adriana Ocampo Inspires Students to Explore New Worlds

Students and faculty from UNAB’s engineering, geology, and astronomy programs gathered on Friday, October 10, at the Aznar Auditorium on the Casona de Las Condes campus for the event Exploring New Worlds: A Visit from NASA Planetary Geologist Dr. Adriana Ocampo.

The event featured the testimony of the acclaimed Colombian scientist, who worked at NASA for 50 years and led several major space exploration missions.

During her keynote, Dr. Adriana Ocampo shared her professional journey and her experience exploring our solar system, focusing especially on her most recent mission, Lucy, launched in October 2021.

Over the course of its 12-year mission, the Lucy spacecraft will fly by a total of eleven asteroids — three in the main belt and eight Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit around the Sun.

“The discoveries we have made in recent decades about our solar system belong to all of humanity, and they are what will help us move forward,” said Dr. Ocampo. She added:

“We are all astronauts, and planet Earth is our spaceship. That’s what I hope students take away from this talk — the understanding that they are part of a vast, beautiful, and valuable system, and that the universe is waiting for them to discover it.”

The event concluded with a Q&A session, where students from engineering, geology, and astronomy had the opportunity to engage directly with Dr. Ocampo.

Exploring New Worlds

The event was organized by UNAB’s School of Earth Sciences within the School of Engineering, in collaboration with the School of Exact Sciences. The topic of space geology was seen as a valuable opportunity to build connections between disciplines.

“The topic Dr. Ocampo presented is truly inspiring for our students, as it invites them to think about the future of geosciences,” said Karen Correa, Director of the School of Earth Sciences. “She also brings extraordinary experience that can motivate students to pursue a scientific career.”

“In geology, we are looking to move into new areas — fields that may not be as common in our traditional setting — and to collaborate across departments, building research that is integrated, interdisciplinary, and aligned with new challenges,” she added.

Timo Anguita, Director of the Doctorate in Astrophysics, highlighted the opportunity for cross-disciplinary collaboration. “We’ve heard about astroinformatics, astrostatistics, astrobiology — and there’s also astrogeology. UNAB is actively promoting interdisciplinary work, and this is an area we can explore together,” he said.

“I hope this activity marks the beginning of future collaborations. Astronomy and geology have much in common, as Dr. Ocampo’s talk clearly showed.”

Dr. Ocampo also emphasized the multidisciplinary nature of space science. “We would not have reached 60 years of space exploration without teamwork and interdisciplinarity,” she said, pointing to Harrison Schmitt — the only professional scientist to walk on the Moon — as a geologist by training.

Dr. Adriana Ocampo: A Life Dedicated to Space Exploration

Adriana Ocampo is a renowned planetary geologist born in Barranquilla, Colombia, who has had a distinguished career at NASA. She is known for her role in the discovery of the Chicxulub crater — linked to the extinction of the dinosaurs — and for her leadership in NASA’s New Frontiers program, which includes missions such as Juno, Pluto, and OSIRIS-REx, all in search of possible new worlds.

As part of her lecture, Dr. Ocampo shared an inspiring short video celebrating NASA’s history, showcasing the effort, creativity, knowledge, and innovation behind its achievements.

“What seems like science fiction is actually science reality. This is the present,” she said, referring to the technology and breathtaking images in the video.

“And this present can be part of your future,” she added, encouraging students to stay informed and find ways to collaborate with NASA.

Dr. Ocampo’s visit reaffirms Universidad Andrés Bello’s commitment to promoting science, exploration, and interdisciplinary knowledge. Activities like this strengthen the training of future generations of researchers and scientists in Chile — inspired by global figures like Dr. Ocampo.