This week, I was privileged to assume the LPL Directorship from Tim Swindle. Tim has done an outstanding job guiding the Department and Laboratory over this past decade, an accomplishment for which we should all be very grateful. Looking forward, I have quite a few plans to continue to nurture and grow LPL and I’ll be telling you more about them in future newsletters.

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

Welcome to the latest edition of the semesterly LPL Newsletter, the last of the 2010s. A lot has happened over this decade, which also coincides with the length of time we’ve been putting out a regular newsletter (the first one came out in Fall 2010).

Welcome to the latest edition of the LPL Newsletter. Those of you with families work to the rhythm of the school calendar. LPL isn't quite as tied to a school-year calendar, but May still has that end-of-the-year feel. The end of the academic year is a time when a lot of awards are announced, and not just for students. In this issue, you’ll find discussions of awards to students, but also to faculty and to staff.

Are we there yet?

At last, we can stop asking that, when it comes to OSIRIS-REx. After nearly a decade of planning and proposing, several years of building instruments, and more than two years of flight, the spacecraft finally arrived at its target asteroid, Bennu, on December 3. In some ways, though, the work is just beginning, with the team mapping and characterizing the asteroid as quickly and as thoroughly as possible in preparation for collecting a sample.

We gratefully acknowledge gifts to LPL from donors and corporate partners.