Humberto Campins

Biography

Humberto Campins is an international expert on asteroids, especially those that can threaten Earth with an impact. He is Pegasus Professor of Physics and Astronomy and head of the Planetary Science group at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He was a 2021-2022 Jefferson Science Fellow and served as science advisor at the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. He is a member of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, which returned asteroid particles back to Earth in 2023. He also works on European Space Agency projects, including the Gaia and Hera missions.

He uses observatories around the world, including in Arizona, Chile, France, Hawaii, Spain and Vatican City. He discovered water ice and organic molecules on asteroid 24 Themis. This was published in the journal Nature, adding weight to the idea that some of Earth’s water came from asteroids. He has published more than 150 articles in the most prestigious international scientific journals. He directed NASA’s Florida Space Grant Consortium for 3 years. He has earned multiple teaching and research awards, including two NASA awards, a Fulbright Senior Research Award to carry out research in Spain, and in 2010 a Don Quijote Award for professional of the year in Orlando. Asteroid “3327 Campins” was named after him by the International Astronomical Union.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1982, and as a graduate student he served as a representative to the Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space of the General Assembly of the United Nations.