Alice Gorman facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alice Gorman FAHA FSA
Dr. Alice Gorman introduces a film at Camperdown, Australia
Born	1964
Education	University of Melbourne University of New England
Occupation	Archaeologist

Alice Gorman (born in 1964) is an Australian archaeologist. She is famous for her special work in a new field called space archaeology. This field studies human activity in space. She also writes a popular blog called "Space Age Archaeology."

Dr. Gorman works at Flinders University. She is an expert in studying ancient Indigenous stone tools. But she is even more known for her research into "space junk," old rocket launch sites, and satellite tracking stations. She teaches students about modern objects, how to protect important historical places, and Australian stone tools.

Dr. Gorman also helped start a group called For All Moonkind, Inc.. This group works to protect human historical sites in outer space. They want to create international rules for this.

What is Archaeology?

Archaeology is the study of human history. It looks at things people left behind. This can be anything from old tools to buildings. Archaeologists dig up and study these objects. They learn about how people lived in the past.

Her Journey to Archaeology

Alice Gorman finished her first degree at The University of Melbourne in 1986. After that, she worked as a consultant. She helped manage and protect Indigenous heritage sites. Later, she went back to study. She earned her Ph.D. from The University of New England in 2001. Her Ph.D. research looked at how archaeologists can find tools used for body modification. She studied the marks and leftover bits on these tools.

After getting her Ph.D., she kept working as a heritage consultant. In 2005, she got a permanent job at Flinders University. She still helps with Indigenous heritage projects today.

Exploring Space Archaeology

From a young age, Alice Gorman loved both space and archaeology. She wanted to be an astrophysicist and an archaeologist. She chose archaeology as her career. But she found a way to combine her two passions. She started studying the archaeology of space exploration. This is what we call space archaeology. (If you want to know about using satellites to find old sites, look up remote sensing.)

In 2003, Dr. Gorman joined the first-ever conference session on space archaeology. She worked with John Campbell and Beth Laura O'Leary.

Since the mid-2000s, she has written many papers on space archaeology. She is known for creating the idea of space as a "cultural landscape." This means she sees space as a place where humans have left their mark. She also helps decide how important "space junk" is from a historical point of view.

Dr. Gorman has studied the "Space Race" from the Cold War. She also looks at how Indigenous people helped with global space exploration. She studies the signs of this interaction left behind.

Her space archaeology research includes:

• Vanguard 1: This is the oldest satellite still orbiting Earth.
• Woomera and Kourou: These are places where rockets are launched from Earth.
• Orroral Valley NASA Tracking Station: This was a station used to track satellites.

In 2013, Dr. Gorman was invited to speak at TEDx Sydney. This showed how important her work on space archaeology had become.

Dr. Gorman is part of the International Space University. She also helps the Australian Research Council with their work. She is a member of many space and archaeology groups. She writes often for The Conversation. There, she shares her space archaeology research with everyone. Her work has been in many science writing collections.

In 2019, Dr. Gorman published her first book on space archaeology. It is called "Dr Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the future." She was interviewed about her book on ABC's Conversations program. In December 2019, her book won the John Mulvaney Book Award. This award is given by the Australian Archaeological Association for important books on Australian archaeology.

Awards and Recognition

• In 2016, Dr. Gorman became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
• In 2017, she won the Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing. This was for her essay called "Trace fossils: The silence of Ediacara, the shadow of uranium."
• In 2020, she received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of New England.
• In 2021, an asteroid was named in her honor! The asteroid is called 551014 Gorman. It is about 2 kilometers wide and orbits between Mars and Jupiter.
• In 2022, she was part of a TV program called "The Unidentified: Are we alone in the universe?"
• In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

See also

In Spanish: Alice Gorman para niños