About Colin Pillinger
Colin Trevor Pillinger, was an English planetary scientist. He was a founding member of the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at The Open University in Milton Keynes; he was also the principal investigator for the British Beagle 2 Mars lander project, and worked on a group of Martian meteorites. Pillinger's first job was working for NASA. Pillinger appeared in Top Gear season 3 episode 7 and won a contest based on the best burnout. After graduating from university, Pillinger became a senior research associate in the Department of Earth Science at the University of Cambridge, and then a senior research fellow at The Open University (1984–1990).
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