Fourth-year graduate student Sarah Peacock was awarded a Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internship with the National Academies Space Studies Board. The internship will afford her the opportunity to spend 10 weeks in Washington, D.C., during the Fall 2016 semester.

Kudos to these LPL graduate students with new or continuing NESSF (NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship) Awards!

The LPL family extends best wishes and congratulations to Ed Beshore, who retired from his career at LPL on October 4. His many contributions and accomplishments were celebrated at a farewell luncheon held in the Michael J. Drake Building on October 3. Ed has a long history with LPL and the University of Arizona.

Congratulations to Leon and Silvia Palafox, who welcomed baby girl Emma into the world on September 18. Emma, who weighed in at 4.6 pounds, was also welcomed to the family by big sister Mia.  Leon is an Associate Staff Scientist at LPL, with research interests in planetary surfaces and machine learning. 

Cat Ripingill joined LPL in June 2016 as a Program Coordinator with OSIRIS-REx, after a long career in hotel and restaurant management. Cat is a native of Arizona and grew up just outside of Tucson in a small town called Mammoth.

Welcome, Lynn Carter and Vishnu Reddy!

Pluto became a trending topic thanks to New Horizons and research by Matsuyama and Keane.

Vivien Parmentier joined LPL in December 2015 as a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Adam Showman. Vivien is a theorist who works on cloud formation in hot Jupiter atmospheres, planets that are highly irradiated by their stars.

Welcome to the Spring 2016 LPL Newsletter. This has been one of those periods of transition, a time for looking back with pride, and some sadness, and looking forward with optimism for great things to come.