Phil Bland joined Curtin as an ARC Laureate Fellow in 2012. Prior to this he was Director of the Impacts & Astromaterials Research Centre at Imperial College London. He graduated in geology from the University of Manchester in 1991 and his interest in planetary science began with a 3 year post as curator of meteorites at the Open University. He was awarded a PhD in 1995 and spent a year as a Royal Society Overseas Research Fellow at the WA Museum before taking up a Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Research Fellowship at the Natural History Museum (London). In 2000 he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.