Dr. Cari Corrigan is a research geologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who specializes in the study of rocks called meteorites that come from other planetary bodies in our solar system. While growing up in western Michigan, she often went hiking and exploring in the woods and lakes near her house. During her first two years in college, she took an astronomy class and a geology class, and wondered how she could combine the two. This led to her discovery of the field of planetary sciences, which she decided to try to to make her career. After earning her PhD from Case Western Reserve University studying Martian meteorites in 2004, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at both the Smithsonian and at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, and joined the Smithsonian permanently in 2008. In both 2001 and 2004, Corrigan participated in the Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program as a field member. These teams travel to Antarctica annually to collect meteorites from the Antarctic ice, where they have fallen and remained frozen since they fell to Earth. The program has returned over 20,000 meteorites for research and educational purposes since it began in 1976. At the Smithsonian, Corrigan curates this collection of Antarctic Meteorites, while also conducting research on both Antarctic and non-Antarctic meteorites from the Moon, Mars, and the asteroid belt.