Assistant Professor Jessica Barnes is the recipient of the 2024 Curie Award. Sponsored by the UArizona College of Science Galileo Circle, the Curie Award recognizes early-career scientists who are advancing science with innovative work and also adding to the diversity within the scientific community. Professor Barnes strives to understand the origin and evolution of volatiles in the inner Solar System utilizing a combination of nano and microanalytical techniques to study mineralogy, geochemistry, and petrological histories of a wide range of extraterrestrial materials.

In 2023, Dr. Barnes received the 2023 Nier Prize, awarded to young scientists for outstanding research in meteoritics. She was selected by NASA in 2019 to study the previously unopened Apollo sample 71036 and received a $1.5M gift in support of the sample analysis. Also that year, Dr. Barnes was named by Nature magazine as one of five young scientists who will shape the next 50 years of Moon research. In 2020, NASA named her to the Early Career Award program. In 2022, Dr. Barnes was selected as a Woman of Impact by the UArizona Office of Research, Innovation & Impact.