Alumni News

NASA has named LPL alumnus Dr. Moses Milazzo as the first Chief Scientist for the Planetary Data Ecosystem (PDE). Moses completed his dissertation, Remote Sensing of Thermally Induced Activity on Io and Mars, with advisor Alfred McEwen in 2005. He is a planetary scientist and educator specializing in visible and near-infrared remote sensing, as well as planetary data processing. Moses has been involved with eight NASA spacecraft missions and has contributed significantly to the development of planetary remote sensing, image processing, cartographic mapping and calibration techniques for a variety of missions and data types. In this new role, Moses will represent the PDE to NASA and serve as a link between the PDE community, the Planetary Data System, and NASA Headquarters.

Alumna Michelle Thompson (2016), an assistant professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, is on a team that will analyze Moon rocks and lunar soil samples from the Apollo 17 mission.

LPL alum (1978) Brother Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory, discusses the institution's past, present, and future roles in the dialogue between faith and science.

LPL alumnus Jonathan Fortney (2004), professor of astronomy and astrophysics at U.C. Santa Cruz, has been appointed by the Simons Foundation as a Simons Investigator in Astrophysics. The award provides $500,000 over five years to support his research on planetary atmospheres. The Simons Investigator program supports outstanding theoretical scientists most productive years, when they are establishing creative new research directions, providing leadership to the field and effectively mentoring junior scientists. Fortney studies the atmospheres, interiors, and thermal evolution of planets, including exoplanets, and develops numerical models to explore many aspects of the physics of planets.

Congratulations to LPL alums Nancy Chabot (1999), DART Coordination Lead, and Andy Rivkin (1997), DART Co-Investigation Team Lead. On November 24, NASA launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. DART is heading to the near-Earth binary asteroid Didymos, where, in September 2022, it will smash into Didymos' moonlet, called Dimorphos. The goal is to test if the technique, which will alter Dimorphos' speed and, consequently, its orbit around Didymos, could be used to defend the Earth from potential impactors.

Learn more about DART from Nancy and Andy at the links below:

• Gravity Assist: How to Move an Asteroid, with Nancy Chabot
• In a First Test of Its Planetary Defense Efforts, NASA's Going to Shove an Asteroid
• NASA is ramming a spacecraft into an asteroid as part of a planetary defense test mission
• NASA’s DART Mission Could Help Cancel an Asteroid Apocalypse

For her outstanding contributions to planetary science, LPL alumna Dr. Elizabeth "Zibi" Turtle was named the 2020-2021 Alumna of the Year for the College of Science by the Arizona Alumni Association. Zibi was recognized at the November 4th, 2021, Alumni of the Year Awards Ceremony.

Zibi earned her doctorate from LPL in 1998. Her dissertation research combined remote-sensing observations and geophysical modeling of impact craters to understand the cratering process and what craters can tell us about the surfaces and interiors of the planets and moons on which they are formed.

After working on the Galileo, Cassini, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter missions while at UA, she led a team that successfully proposed the Europa Imaging System (known as EIS) for NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2024 to explore the habitability of this ice-covered, ocean world moon of Jupiter.

In 2019, NASA selected Dragonfly, led by Zibi as Principal Investigator, as its next New Frontiers mission. Dragonfly, which is scheduled to launch in 2027, is a robotic rotorcraft lander that will spend ~3 years exploring Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Taking advantage of Titan's low gravity and dense atmosphere, Dragonfly will fly from place to place to make measurements that will help us to understand the chemistry of this organic-rich, ocean world. Titan's chemical processes may be similar to what occurred on the early Earth before life developed here. Dragonfly is the fourth NASA New Frontiers mission and the first led by a woman. 

In addition to her project leadership, Zibi has held several important and influential roles in the planetary science community. She has served on the leadership committee for the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences, the steering committee of NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group, and the National Research Council’s Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science—the highest-level advisory group for NASA planetary science.

LPL alumna Dr. Ali Bramson (2018) and Dr. Michael Sori (Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have joined the faculty of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) at Purdue University as Assistant Professors.

Before joining Purdue, both Ali and Mike were postdoctoral scholars at LPL. As postdocs, Ali worked with Professor Lynn Carter researching lava flows on the Moon with instruments onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft and Mike collaborated with professors Christopher Hamilton and Shane Byrne in the study of Mars and the Moon while also being involved in several NASA missions.

In the EAPS Department at Purdue, Ali and Mike will be teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in planetary geology while expanding their current research. Mike has stated that his experience at LPL, including working with students in lab groups and supporting their thesis projects, has prepared him for the next step as an Assistant Professor. 

Likewise, Ali has shared that while at LPL, she was actively involved in NASA spacecraft missions, which were crucial for her scientific interests, and led to great professional and academic opportunities. Ali is particularly excited about the interdisciplinary EAPS Department where she will collaborate with scientists who use similar techniques, but also engage in other problems that differ from her previous training.

Congratulations, Professor Bramson and Professor Sori!

LPL alumna Sarah Hörst (2011) is the recipient of a 2020 Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The Macelwane Medal is awarded to early career scientists making significant contributions to Earth and space science and recognizes excellence in research, creativity, service, outreach, and diversity. 

In 2019, Sarah received a 2020 Early Career Award from the Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society, which recognized her work in advancing our understanding of photochemical haze formation in planetary atmospheres within our solar system and beyond.

Dr. Hörst is currently Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

LPL alumna Dr. Elizabeth Turtle (1998), planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, is Principal Investigator for the Dragonfly mission to explore Titan. The mission leadership team includes another LPL alumnus (Dr. Jason Barnes, 2004) as well as a former LPL postdoctoral research associate (Dr. Ralph Lorenz). An additional six LPL student alumni are members of the Dragonfly science and engineering team.

Dr. Failth Vilas (1984) has been named Editor of Planetary Science Journal, a new open-access online journal published by the Amerian Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS). Dr. Vilas is  a Senior Scientist with the Planetary Science Institute. In 2018, she was awarded the Masursky Award from DPS for meritorious service to planetary science.