2016 Spring Graduate Student News

Jamie Molaro is the 2016 recipient of the Gerard P. Kuiper Memorial Award, the department's highest award for graduate student scholarship. Jamie defended her dissertation titled, "Stress, on the Rocks: Thermally Induced Stresses in Rocks and Microstructures on Airless Bodies, Implications for Breakdown," in July 2015. She is currently a

Congratulations to LPL graduate student Sarah Sutton, recipient of a NSF Graduate Research Program Fellowship (GRPF). This prestigious fellowship provides funding and tuition deferment for 3 years. Sarah's academic advisor is Assistant Professor Christopher Hamilton. As an incoming graduate student, Sarah was the recipient of a University Fellows

Congratulations to LPL's 2016 Galileo Circle Scholarship recipients: Hamish Hay, James Keane, Tad Komacek, Joshua Lothringer, Sarah Peacock, Xianyu Tan, and Donna Viola. Galileo Circle Scholarships are awarded to the University of Arizona's finest science students and represent the tremendous breadth of research interests in the College of Science

Margaret Landis and Sarah Sutton have been announced as recipients of funds from the 2016 Curson Travel Scholarship.

Margaret is a third-year graduate student working with Associate Professor Shane Byrne. Her research focus is on icy processes on Mars and Ceres. She plans to use the Curson travel funds

Youngmin JeongAhn has been awarded the 2015 Theoretical Astrophysics Program (TAP) Research Prize. Youngmin won for his paper titled, "On the non-uniform distribution of the angular elements of near-Earth objects." After graduating from LPL in August 2015, Youngmin began a postdoctoral position studying asteroid dynamics with Professor Wing-Huen

Donna Viola is the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for Fall 2015. She worked with Dr. Joe Spitale in the PTYS/ASTR/GEOS 214 course on Astrobiology, which is a General Education Natural Sciences Tier II  course. Donna gave two lectures during the semester and was cited for her time

Sixth-year graduate student Ethan Schaefer (advised by Professor Alfred McEwen) is the recipient of a $500 travel award courtesy of Mr. Dan Cavanagh, member of the LPL Advisory Board. Ethan will use the funds to support a field campaign to study lava flows in Hawaii. The study, advised

The Department of Planetary Sciences/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory was pleased to honor the following students as recipients of the 2016 College of Science Graduate Student Awards. Each student received $100 and recognition at a reception held on April 14.

Michelle Thompson will defend her dissertation, focused on