LPL graduate student Catherine Elder received the 2013 Shandel summer travel award. The Shandel award funding helped support Catherine's travel to ETH Zurich, where she spent two weeks working with Professor Paul Tackley to model mantle convection in Io’s mantle. Professor Adam Showman is Catherine's advisor. More about Catherine's dissertation project and work at ETH is available here.

The Shandel Education Plus Fund in Planetary Sciences and LPL was established by a generous donor and friend of LPL for the purpose of supporting travel expenses outside the state of Arizona during summer break. The award is open to students in the Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory who propose to fund study, museum visits, special exhibits, seminars, instruction, competitions, research and other endeavors that are beyond those provided by the normal campus environment and are not part of the student’s regular curriculum during the recipient’s school year.