Dr. Kathryn (Kat) Volk, LPL Associate Staff Scientist, is the recipient of the 2022 Vera Rubin Early Career Prize. The Division on Dynamical Astronomy (DDA) of the American Astronomical Society awards the prize annually to recognize an early career dynamicist who demonstrates excellence in scientific research in dynamical astronomy, has had impact and influence on the field, and shows a promise of continued excellence as demonstrated by past practice in research, teaching, and the advancement and support of the field of dynamical astronomy.

Kat is a 2013 alumna of LPL, completing her Ph.D. under the direction of Regents Professor Renu Malhotra. She uses theory, numerics, and observations in her research, which spans both Solar System and exoplanetary science.

Dr. Volk has made fundamental contributions to the observational characterization of small-body populations through her core role in the Outer Solar System Origins Survey and her work to apply her extensive numerical investigations to theoretical models of the early Solar System. Her research has been influential in quantifying the rates at which Jupiter-family comets are generated from their hypothesized source in the scattered disk beyond Neptune and in characterizing the underlying resonant trans-Neptunian object populations as observational anchors for theories of the early Solar System.

Dr. Volk has also significantly shaped the field of exoplanetary science with her influential proposal that most planetary systems begin in compact configurations and her fundamental contributions to our understanding of the long-term dynamical stability of exoplanetary systems. Kat's research demonstrates that the future lifetimes of mature exoplanet systems are set by slow chaotic diffusion induced by the overlap of secular (rather than mean-motion) resonances.

Dr. Volk will give the prize lecture at the 54th annual DDA meeting in the spring of 2023.