Professor Alfred McEwen was named the recipient of the 2015 Whipple Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of planetary science, will be presented at the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco. Past recipients of the Whipple Award (established in 1989) include Gene Shoemaker, David Stevenson, and Harry McSween.

In addition, he was named a Galileo Circle Fellow in UA's College of Science, an honor reserved for 10% of the College faculty. Professor Renu Malhotra is the only other LPL faculty member named as a Galileo Circle Fellow.

Professor McEwen earned his Ph.D. in Planetary Geology from Arizona State University in 1988. He has been with LPL since 1996. He serves as director of the Planetary Image Research Laboratory and is a member of the imaging science team of the Cassini mission to Saturn; co-investigator on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbit Camera (LROC) team; and principal investigator of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Professor McEwen has advised, mentored, and supported many students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. In 2011, he received NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal.