The Fall Dialogue Series is a monthly conversation about thriving in the Anthropocene, featuring innovative thought leaders from ASU and beyond.

Steve Desch is a professor of astrophysics in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. His research focuses on developing models of star and planet formation, using data from meteoritics and planetary science. Desch especially studies the origins of chondrules and meterorites, works in the fields of exoplanets and astrobiology, and is principal investigator of the NASA-funded NExSS grant to study geochemical cycles on exoplanets to aid searches for signs of life on other planets. He has modeled small icy bodies to explore the likelihood of subsurface waster on Pluto and its moon, Charon, the asteroid Ceres, and others. Desch has recently advocated the concept of Arctic Ice Management, to study how to increase sea ice in the Arctic in response to climate change. Asteroid 9926 is named after him.