Welcome to the Fall 2024 LPL Newsletter! Our Artemis Moon Tree planting ceremony was certainly a highlight of the semester and we are excited to see the sapling grow over the coming years. The articles featured in this newsletter describe our new Moon tree as well as an opportunity to support the purchase of a bench to provide respite and shade for future generations of lunar arboreal explorers.

The fall LPL field trip was a little different this year. Instead of the usual four- or five-day excursion, a group of our more planetary geosciences oriented students joined Regents Professor Vic Baker on a week-long visit to the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington state and Idaho. Vic is a world expert on these landforms, which provide crucial context for understanding the giant outflow channels on Mars. LPL professors Jack Holt, course instructor, and Lynn Carter also joined the trip and brought along some of their geophysical instrumentation to provide the students with opportunities to do some real science. Thanks to the Wilkening-Sill endowment, we have been able to continue support for the LPL field trip tradition despite recent challenges.

We are proud to highlight in this semesterly newsletter the accomplishments of our students and alumni over the past few months. LPL alum Dr. Thomas Jones, who participated in one of the earliest LPL field trips, returned to LPL last month to give two excellent lectures about his experiences as a Space Shuttle astronaut. Tom also took time to answer career-focused questions from our students. College of Science Dean Carmala Garzione recognized Tom’s accomplishments with a Career Achievement Award.

We were also touched this semester by the recognition of alum Nadine Barlow and Regents Professor Emeritus H. Jay Melosh with named craters on Mars. These were highly appropriate recognitions both for Nadine, who produced the first comprehensive catalog of Martian craters, and Jay, an impact cratering expert who literally wrote the book on impact processes.

Thank you to all who attended our fall 2024 evening lecture series and to all who follow and support LPL.