As of June 2009, Curtis Cooper is a Software Engineer at Medical Simulation in Denver, CO.
Alumni News
Maki Hattori (2008) and Brian Jackson (2009) were married on April 18, 2010. Congratulations and best wishes from everyone at LPL!
Please join us in congratulating Jonathan Fortney (2004), the 2010 recipient of the Urey Prize in Planetary Science awarded by The Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. The Urey Prize recognizes and encourages outstanding achievements in planetary sciences by a young scientist.
Jonathan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz. In February of 2010, he was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Jonathan!
Congratulations to Fred Ciesla (2003), the 2011 recipient of the Alfred O. Nier Prize. The Meteoritical Society presents this award annually to the outstanding young scientist working on meteorites, impact craters, asteroids, and related fields. Fred is currently Assistant Professor, Department of Geophysical Sciences, at The University of Chicago.
Eugene Levy was a faculty member in LPL beginning in 1975, and was department head and LPL director from 1983 until 1994. While at LPL, he was instrumental in developing the course "Humanity and the Universe: Origin and Destiny," which has been taught under various course numbers (PTYS 105, NATS 102, and, currently, PTYS 170B1) for a quarter century. After serving as Dean of Science at UA, Gene moved on to become Provost at Rice University, along with longtime LPL scientist Erzébet Merényi. He writes from Houston:
"Last summer (2010), I stepped out of the Rice provost position---after having been in the job 10 years. I finished a sabbatical and joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy here as a faculty member (a position I have held formally since my arrival, but have not really gotten active in until now). For the present I am focusing on writing a book (a textbook for general education science), something I have wanted to do for quite a long time, and which I hope will offer an attractive alternative to existing books. I developed a large part of my approach to the material---which I think is in some ways unique---teaching at the UA. I am also working on developing a new physics course, somewhat innovative and experimental, but I have recently found that a similar course has been given in a small handful of universities over the past decade or two. Beyond that, I am developing my footing as a faculty member unencumbered by the leadership and administrative roles I played for the previous 27 years. I'm looking ahead, to some combination of teaching, science and policy (through the Rice Baker Institute for Public Policy) activities, with the balance yet to be determined. On related fronts, I have remained engaged in various Washington activities. I am a member of the NASA Advisory Council Science Committee and chair of its Planetary Protection Subcommittee. (You may be aware that five or six years ago, I was "fired" from the NASA Advisory Council by then NASA Administrator Mike Griffin; my transgression was too insistently advocating for science over human flight to deep space.) I am also a member (and, until recently, chair) of the Associated Universities, Inc. Board of Trustees, the NGO that is responsible for operating most of the U.S. public radio astronomy observatories.
"Erzsébet Merényi continues as a faculty member in the School of Engineering here, working successfully and prominently on developing machine intelligence mainly for application to analysis of large hyper-dimensional data sets, focused on a variety of potential applications, including analysis of remote sensing data for planetary and earth science, which has been her longest standing interest."
LPL mourned the loss this year of dear friend, colleague, and alumna (1997) Elisabetta "Betty" Pierazzo. Betty was a Research Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. She was also adjunct faculty at LPL, teaching PTYS 214, Astrobiology, on a regular basis. Betty was loved by all who knew her. We feel her loss each day, but remember her friendship, her warm heart, and her vibrant smile.
More information about Betty is available online from PSI and the PSI memorial page, the Arizona Daily Star and a Facebook Memorial Page.
On August 19, 2011, David and Kelley Choi became the proud parents of beautiful baby girl Hannah Jiyeon Choi. Hannah arrived at a healthy 7 lbs and 9 oz, and 19 3/4 inches.
Not long after Hannah's birth, David and Kelley relocated to Maryland so that David could begin his post-doctoral fellowship at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Hannah has grown quite a bit from her newborn portrait (shown here)---she is even cuter now, if that's possible.
Best wishes to David, Kelley, and Hannah!
Terry Hurford (LPL Class of 1998) and his wife recently gave birth to their second child, Terry A. Hurford III. They are currently living in the Baltimore/DC area, having moved there after grad school to work at Goddard Space Flight Center. Terry has continued his work dealing with tidal stress on icy satellites by looking at how tidal stress can affect the Tiger Stripes on Enceladus, possibly causing daily movements along them and controlling volatile escape as 
observed by Cassini. He is also a part of the Cassini CIRS team, helping with OPS and science planning for icy satellite targets. Observations he helped plan and execute found thermal anomalies on Mimas (the Pacman) and Tethys.
In addition to science and mission work, Terry is currently running the Outer Planets Research Program while on a detail to NQ. During his tenure as Discipline Scientist for OPRP, he has successfully maintained a diverse and dynamic program while increasing its budget by more than 50%.
Congratulations to the Hurford family!
Anna H. Spitz earned her Ph.D. from Geosciences/LPL in 1991, working with Bill Boynton. The title of her dissertation is “Trace element analysis of ureilite meteorites and implications for their petrogenesis.”
Since completing her Ph.D. in 1991, Anna Spitz has not analyzed one ureilite. Although she never really left planetary science all together---teaching astronomy and writing about astronomical topics over the last twenty years---her interests brought her back full-time to planetary science starting in 2010---this time as a translator of science rather than as a researcher.
As she finished her ureilite research in the early 1990s, Spitz returned to business pursuits in the private sector and became one of the founders of a Tucson-based environmental consulting company and spent the next ten years full-time in the environmental field doing research, business, education and community work. After selling her share of Zenitech Corporation in 1991, she joined a firm specializing in occupational safety and health and then became the Coordinator of the Tucson/Pima County Household Hazardous Waste Program. In 1994 Ann Marie Wolf and she began the Sonora Environmental Research Institute (SERI), where they undertook research (leading to a patent for a cleanser made of recycled glass), education and community outreach. SERI is now well-known for its innovative and community-defined environmental programs in southern Arizona. Spitz remains on the SERI board.
In 2000, Spitz returned to the University of Arizona at Steward Observatory. Working in the Director’s office she participated in management of various projects. As in the private sector, starting new ventures and incorporating research into the public sphere continued to engage Spitz and over the next ten years, she helped launch and establish the Center for Astrobiology, Arizona Water Institute and the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter programs at the University of Arizona.
In 2010, Spitz joined the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission team led by Principal Investigator (PI), Michael Drake and Deputy PI (DPI), Dante Lauretta as Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) lead. This is a wonderful fit and she is very happy for the opportunity to be the E/PO Lead for this NASA New Frontiers Mission working with the outstanding team now led by Lauretta with DPI Ed Beshore. “This opportunity allows me to engage in the science, which so captivated me as a student at LPL, while indulging my passion for translating science to the general public and students. It’s great to be back at LPL working with new colleagues and former-now-current colleagues.”
Visiting student/researcher Beary Xiao recently returned to his home in China after spending two years at LPL. Beary is back in Wuhan, writing: "It is a great pleasure to come back and see the old friends here, but I also miss you guys and the blue and clean sky in Tucson." Beary married fiancee Lina on September 21, shortly after arriving home in China. Lina is a human resource manager for a private company in China. Beary will graduate from Wuhan University in June 2013 and hopes to earn a post-doctoral position at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), where he will continue his work on planetary geology with an emphasis on surface evolution. Our best wishes to Beary and Lina!
Beary and Lina in Guilin