2015 Spring Department News

We are pleased to welcome two more community leaders as new members of LPL’s External Advisory Board: Dr. Norman Komar and Dr. Xenia King.

Dr. Komar is a retired neuroradiologist who spent the bulk of his career practicing medicine in Tucson. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from

Congratulations to Melissa Dykhuis, Catherine Elder, Patrick Harner, Youngmin JeongAhn, Huan Meng, and Rob Zellem, LPL's most recent graduates!

On November 21, 2014, Huan Meng defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled, "Planet Formation in the Terrestrial Zone." Huan's advisor was Regents' Professor George Rieke. Huan Meng is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate working with Professor Rieke at Steward Observatory.

LPL has a long history and much experience with tracking space rocks. From astronomical surveys such as SPACEWATCH® and the Catalina Sky Survey to the Meteorite Lab to the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, LPL knows asteroids and meteorites. Now, thanks to a generous gift from an anonymous donor, even more expert

A display highlighting LPL’s work on asteroids and meteorites has been constructed by Dolores Hill and installed in U.S. Representative Martha McSally’s office in Washington, D.C. University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart officially presented the display to Rep. McSally on April 22.

The display includes models of the OSIRIS-REx

This semester, the LPL field trippers returned to a site previously visited on our fieldtrips several years ago—Canyonlands in southeast Utah. This national park contains many features familiar to planetary geologists such as graben (tectonically formed trenches where the floor has dropped in elevation) and an impact crater (although

As rovers crawl across the surface of Mars, they can investigate small-scale structures in sedimentary rock that can’t be seen from orbital datasets. These structures can tell us a lot about the environment within which the rocks were deposited. Terrestrial geologists have been interpreting these features for a

Spring is a busy time for outreach! LPL students, faculty, staff, and volunteers have reached well over 5,000 people this spring semester alone—ranging from introducing preschoolers to “space rocks” to giving popular monthly lectures at Borderlands Brewery as part of our Space Drafts Public Talk Series

Two LPL staff members were honored at the awards banquet for the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program this spring.

Susan Brew, Program Manager for Arizona Space Grant Consortium, received the award for Excellence in Campus Outreach for STEMM Diversity. The award celebrates Susan’s accomplishments during her

Congratulations to Sarah Sutton, recipient of this year's LPL Appointed Personnel Staff Excellence Award, and to Eneida Guerra de Lima, recipient of the 2015 Classified Staff Excellence Award!

Sarah Sutton is a Photogrammetry and Image Processing Scientist with the HiRISE project. She began working for Alfred McEwen as a

Associate Staff Scientist Veronica Bray Durfey was the recipient of a 2014/2015 Professional Development Scholarship from the University of Arizona Appointed Professionals Advisory Council (APAC). Veronica was one of nine awardees, out of more than 80 applicants. The scholarship helped to fund travel to a New Horizons Mission meeting. Congratulations, Veronica!