Alumni News

The Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society recently announced their yearly awards. Four LPL alumni were among the 2026 recipients. The Harold C. Urey Prize, which recognizes early-career outstanding achievements in planetary research was awarded to Dr. Ali Bramson (2018, advisor Shane Byrne) and Dr. Tad Komacek (2018, advisor Adam Showman). Dr. Catherine Neish (2008, advisor Jonathan Lunine) was recognized with the Claudia J. Alexander Prize, which acknowledges significant mid-career contributions to planetary knowledge. Dr. Mark Marley received the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize honoring his outstanding contributions to the field of planetary science. Visit AAS Division for Planetary Sciences Announces 2026 Prize Winners for more information on these awardees and their outstanding accomplishments.

LPL alumnus Dr. Paul Geissler passed away on March 23, 2026 surrounded by his wife Nadine, his four brothers, and all his children. 

He felt privileged to participate in the exploration of the solar system during a career that spanned over 30 years. Paul earned his Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona in 1992 with a dissertation titled Spectrophotometric Mapping of Coprates Quadrangle, Mars. He was a Senior Research Associate at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory until 2003, when he moved to the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona.

His research focused on the surfaces of Mars and outer solar system satellites, with funding support from multiple NASA data analysis programs. He was affiliated with the Galileo and Cassini Imaging Teams and a Co-Investigator on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera team. He was also selected as a Participating Scientist on the Mars Exploration Rover mission and served as a Payload Uplink Lead for the close-up cameras on the MER and Mars Science Laboratory science teams.

In 2021 he was among those ranked in the top 2% of scientists in the world according to a study by experts at Stanford University. He led or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and made numerous contributions to the popular press, sharing his scientific knowledge and discoveries with the public. Moreover, Paul was always friendly and easy to work with, inspiring colleagues and students alike.

Dr. Bramson (2018) is faculty in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University. Ali studies problems related to understanding the quantitative geomorphology of other planets, especially the physical processes related to ice and volatiles that affect the surfaces of solid bodies in our solar system. Her research on Martian mid-latitude ice is helping to shape the future of in situ resource utilization and human exploration of Mars.

Dr. Michelle Thompson (2016) joined Purdue University as an Assistant Professor in 2018. The recipient of a NASA Early Career Fellowship, her work focuses on understanding the alteration of airless body surfaces, a process known as space weathering. Michelle uses experimental laboratory techniques to simulate airless body surface conditions and compares these results to the analysis of returned samples from the Moon and near-Earth asteroids.

Dr. James Keane (2017) was awarded the The Harold C. Urey Prize, which recognizes and encourages outstanding achievements in planetary science by an early-career scientist. He distinguished himself with his broad and impactful research portfolio studying the geophysics of worlds across the Solar System, including the Moon, Io, Arrokoth, Pluto, and Enceladus.

Dr. Keane is also an accomplished science illustrator and communicator who has improved the accessibility of planetary science to not only the scientific community, but the general public. He has a record of community service and outreach serving as a member of DPS, AAS Committee on the Status of Women, and multiple other scientific organizations and groups. James is a mentor to graduate students at Caltech, Purdue, and University of Arizona.

James is a planetary scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He studies the interactions between orbital dynamics, rotational dynamics, and geologic processes on rocky and icy worlds using theoretical models and the analysis of spacecraft-derived datasets. These techniques facilitate his investigation of the dynamics, structure, origin, and evolution of solar system bodies. James has experience with NASA missions including GRAIL, Juno, and New Horizons.

LPL alumna Dr. Faith Vilas (1984) was awarded the 2025 Gerard P. Kuiper Prize by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. This prize recognizes and honors outstanding contributors to planetary science. Past recipients include geologist Eugene Shoemaker, who co-discovered comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, and astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan. University of Arizona Professor Emeritus William Hubbard and Regents Professor Emeritus Donald Hunten have also received this prestigious award.

The DPS commends Vilas’ distinguished career of groundbreaking research and wide-anging innovations. She has made outstanding contributions to planetary science across a range of diverse topics. She has pioneered remote sensing of the Solar System, pushing capabilities through instrument design and expert observations of a variety of targets. Vilas designed the coronagraph used to acquire the first image of a circumstellar disk around another star and made the first asteroid survey using a CCD spectrograph, an instrument for measuring the intensity of light at different wavelengths. She made pioneering observations of aqueous alteration on primitive asteroids, the mineralogy of Mercury and hydration on the Moon.

The DPS presented Vilas with her award at the 2025 EPSC-DPS meeting, held in Helsinki, Finland on Sept. 11, where she gave the keynote speech.

“I’ve been in planetary sciences for 50 years. When I began, humankind’s first space probes were passing planets in our Solar System for the first time,” she said. “Now we study samples of material returned from the surfaces of asteroids to the Earth and determine the compositions of atmospheres of planets around other stars. Our scientific growth has been extraordinary.”

Her service to and leadership of the community have been extraordinary, according to the DPS commendation, including her roles as Program Director for Planetary Astronomy at the National Science Foundation; Chief Scientist of the NASA Planetary Data System; inaugural NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group Chair; Chair of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences; NASA Discovery Program Scientist; and Vice-Chair and Chair of the Detection and Characterization Sub-Committee on National Academies’ 2010 study on near-Earth object detection, characterization, mitigation. She was the Director of the Multiple Mirror Telescope, or MMT, observatory from 2005-2010 and has been involved in missions such as MESSENGER – short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging – at Mercury and Hayabusa at the asteroid Itokawa. Furthermore, she currently serves as the inaugural Editor of the AAS Planetary Science Journal. The impact of exceptional planetary science contributions enabled by Vilas’ work in these areas cannot be overstated.

The DPS, founded in 1968, is the largest special-interest Division of the AAS. The AAS, established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America.

LPL alumnus Dr. Dwight Hoxie passed away on December 27, 2024. 

Dwight earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of Arizona in 1969 with a dissertation titled The Structure and Evolution of Stars of Very Low Mass. 

Dr. Hoxie worked as a groundwater hydrologist at the United States Geological Survey, Reston (VA) Water Resources Division.

LPL alumni Dr. Michelle Thompson (2016) and Dr. James Keane (2017) were honored as 2024 Presidential Early Career Scientists by former U.S. President Joe Biden. The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers recognizes scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership early in their research careers and is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding early-career scientists and engineers.  

Michelle Thompson is an Associate Professor at Purdue University, where she studies the alteration of planetary materials after their formation, specifically the evolution of airless body surfaces. James Keane is a Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he studies the interactions between orbital dynamics, rotational dynamics, and geologic processes on rocky and icy worlds across the solar system..

Dr. James Keane (2017) was awarded a NASA Early Career Achievement Medal in recognition of early career achievement in the geodynamics of the Moon and icy worlds, and for championing the Endurance rover science concept in the planetary decadal survey.

James is a planetary scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He studies the interactions between orbital dynamics, rotational dynamics, and geologic processes on rocky and icy worlds using theoretical models and the analysis of spacecraft-derived datasets. These techniques facilitate his investigation of the dynamics, structure, origin, and evolution of solar system bodies. James has experience with NASA missions including GRAIL and New Horizons.

Dr. Keane is also an accomplished science illustrator and communicator.

Dr. Jamie Molaro (2015) won both the 2024 Sagan Medal and the 2024 Neibur Early Career Award. The Sagan Medal, awarded by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, recognizes outstanding communication by a planetary scientist to the public. The Neibur Award is given by NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute to an investigator within 10 years of their Ph.D. who has made significant contributions to the exploration science communities.

Jamie is a Research Scientist with the Planetary Science Institute. She is a former participating scientist on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission and current member of the sample science team, as well as a co-investigator for Project ESPRESSO (Exploration Science Pathfinder Research for Enhancing Solar System Observations). She studies how heating and cooling breaks down rocks and boulders over time. Outreach and service are important parts of her career. She is the founder and the director of both The Art of Planetary Science, a public engagement effort to help people connect to science through art shows and workshops, and DAIS (Disabled for Accessibility In Space), a peer networking and support organization for Disabled scientists.