Kathryn M. Volk defended her dissertation titled "Dynamical Studies of the Kuiper Belt and the Centaurs" on April 1. Kat is a 2013 recipient of the Gerard P. Kuiper Memorial Award, presented each year to students of the Planetary Sciences who best exemplify, through the high quality of their research and the excellence of their scholastic achievements, the goals and standards established by Gerard P. Kuiper, founder of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the Department of Planetary Sciences. During her time as a graduate student, Kat also earned the Graduate Teaching Excellence Award (Fall 2006) as well as the department award for Service and Outreach (2010). She was a two-time recipient of a College of Science Galileo Scholarship (2009 and 2011). This spring, as recipient of the Kuiper award, Kat was the department's nominee for the College of Science Scholarship award. At the College of Science awards ceremony held on April 8, Kat was named as the college-wide awardee for Scholarship, an honor given to the single most outstanding graduate researcher in the entire College of Science. Professor Renu Malhotra was Kat's dissertation advisor.

Kat will begin a position as a CITA (Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics) postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia Vancouver in the summer of 2013. 

Congratulations, Kat!