A study led by Professor Erik Asphaug suggests that the protoplanet most likely hit Earth twice. The first time, the impactor (dubbed "Theia") only glanced off Earth. Then, some hundreds of thousands of years later, it came back to deliver the final blow.
Professor Amy Mainzer is Principal Investigator for NEOWISE and for NEO Surveyor, two space missions designed to survey the Solar System for potentially hazardous objects—so it's no wonder that she was selected to be the science advisor for the Netflix film, Don't Look Up. In this Wired interview, Professor Mainzer breaks down a few scenes from film and explores the science behind near-Earth objects. Read more about Professor Mainzer's work on the film in the article from Universe Today.
Daniel Apai is an astrophysicist specializing in studies of extrasolar planets with the long-term goal of identifying planetary systems capable of supporting life. He studies the interface of planetary sciences and astronomy and holds a joint appointment with Steward Observatory. Professor Apai is Principal Investigator for Project EOS: Earths in Other Solar Systems, a NASA-funded astrobiology research team exploring the potential of nearby planetary systems for supporting life. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Nautilus Space Telescope, a space mission concept designed for a very large-scale biosignature survey. Dr. Apai is founder of Project EDEN, one of the largest programs searching for habitable worlds in the solar neighborhood. He served on a variety of science advisory boards and steering committees. Professor Apai has been with LPL since 2011.
Tom Zega joined LPL in 2011. He applies a microscopy- and microanalysis-based approach to study the chemical and physical evolution of the early solar system and ancient stars, specifically the origin of the circumstellar grains that formed in ancient stars, refractory inclusions that formed the first solar-system solids, primitive organic compounds, and development of analytical techniques for investigations of such materials.
Tom has developed two courses for the Planetary Sciences curriculum at LPL: Planetary Materials (with Dr. Krishna Muralidharan, MSE) and Nanoscale Analysis of Materials Using Transmission Electron Microscopy. He leads the Planetary Materials Research Group at LPL and is the Scientific Director as well as TEM/FIB Instrument Scientist for the Kuiper Materials Imaging and Characterization Facility.
Dr. Dante Lauretta has been confirmed as a University of Arizona Regents Professor.
Professor Lauretta is an expert in near-Earth asteroid formation and evolution and Principal Investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission to collect and return material from the asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx, the largest sponsored project ever conducted at UArizona, will likely yield fundamental knowledge about the origin of the terrestrial planets. The recently acquired sample will be delivered to Earth in 2023.
Professor Lauretta has taught at all levels, from undergraduate general education to graduate classes. He also has taught in multiple formats, from large-audience lectures and a TEDx talk to small seminar classes. He has served on advisory boards for both the College of Humanities and the Honors College.
In 2002, Dr. Lauretta was awarded the Alfred O. Nier Prize of the Meteoritical Society for "his experimental studies of iron-bearing sulfide formation in the solar system." He was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 and was recognized by Discover magazine in 2004 for a top-100 science discovery. In 2006, the UArizona College of Science honored him with a Distinguished Early Career Teaching Award.
The designation of Regents Professor is an honored position reserved for faculty scholars of exceptional ability who have achieved national or international distinction. The Regents Professor title serves as recognition of the highest academic merit and is awarded to faculty members who have made a unique contribution to the quality of the university through distinguished accomplishments in teaching, scholarship, research or creative work.
Research Professor Dr. Gilda Ballester joined LPL in 2000. Her interests include exoplanets, planetary formation and evolution, planetary astronomy, and planetary atmospheres.
Gilda conducted early research on Io's atmosphere and plasma torus, as well as on the upper atmospheres, auroras, and magnetospheric interactions of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus using both imaging and spectroscopy.
Gilda's work with the Hubble Space Telescope Panchromatic Comparative Exoplanet Treasury program focused on characterizing ultra-hot to hot Jupiters, warm exoplanets from Jupiter to super-Earth masses and their host stars based on observations and modeling. During the course of her career, Gilda built a large network of international collaborators.
Professor William Boynton is a Mission Instrument Scientist with OSIRIS-REx. As a cosmochemist, his research focused on understanding the role of volatile materials, chiefly water, carbon dioxide and argon, as probes for planetary processes. Since beginning his faculty career at LPL in 1977, Professor Boynton has been a member of eight other NASA flight missions, including as Principal Investigator for instruments on the Comet Rendezvous/Asteroid Flyby (Comet Penetrator-Lander) and Mars Odyssey 2001 (Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, GRS). He served as Team Leader for the Mars Observer GRS and for Geochemistry on Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker Mission to Asteroid 433 Eros. As Co-Investigator with MESSENGER, Bill was responsible for data from the X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers. As Co-I of Mars Phoenix Lander, he managed the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA). Bill was also Co-I for the Cassini-Huygens Surface-Science Package.
Professor Boynton is a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society and the recipient of four NASA Group Achievement Awards. In 2005, he was awarded the NASA Public Service Medal for outstanding leadership of the 2001 Mars Odyssey GRS team; in 2010, he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal for leading the TEGA investigation with the LPL-led Phoenix mission to Mars.
Dr. Timothy Swindle joined LPL in 1986 and became Department Head and Laboratory Director in 2012. His research interests include cosmochemistry, lunar studies, and small bodies. He uses measurements of the noble gases in extraterrestrial materials (lunar samples and meteorites) to study the evolution of the solar system. He serves as Director of the Arizona Space Grant Consortium. Tim was awarded the Antarctic Service Medal (2000) and is a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society (2008).
Highlights of Tim's tenure as Head and Director include his efforts in the formation of UArizona science clusters for Space Situational Awareness and Earth Dynamics Observatory and in the creation of the Arizona Space Institute; his active support and advocacy for increased diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and awareness; development of the Kuiper Materials Imaging and Characterization Facility; and development and expansion of The Art of Planetary Science.
Dr. Joellen Russell has been named a University Distinguished Professor in recognition of her long-term commitment and outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. Professor Russell is best known as a teacher for her very popular Introduction to Oceanography class, which had more than 1000 students one semester. She has also regularly taught an undergraduate course in Teaching Geosciences.
Professor Russell's research uses global climate and earth system models to simulate the climate and carbon cycle of the past, the present and the future, and develops observationally-based metrics to evaluate these simulations. She leads the modeling theme of the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project and chairs the NOAA Science Advisory Board’s Climate Working Group; she also serves as an Objective Leader for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research’s AntarcticClimate21, and on the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Community Earth System Model Advisory Board.
Professor Russell holds faculty appointments in the departments of Geosciences, Planetary Sciences, Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, and Mathematics, and has been the Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair of Integrative Science since 2017. She has been at the University of Arizona since 2006, and on the LPL faculty since 2012.
Associate Professor Lynn Carter is the recipient of a Distinguished Scholars Award from the University of Arizona. The award recognizes outstanding mid-career faculty who create transformative innovations in their disciplines and make highly valued contributions to the teaching, research, and outreach priorities set out in the University of Arizona's Strategic Plan. In 2016, Dr. Carter received the Presidential Early Career Award, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to outstanding scientists who show exceptional promise for leadership and for contributions to public education and outreach.
Dr. Carter is an expert in the use of radar to explore planetary surfaces and subsurfaces; she is currently a team member on six spacecraft instruments. Dr. Carter has held advisory and leadership positions both nationally (NASA steering committees and advisory panels) and locally, serving on the Executive Committee of the Earth Dynamics Observatory and as a member of the inaugural Executive Panel for the Arizona Space Institute, organized from the Strategic Plan call to provide a systematic approach to compete for spacecraft instruments and missions.
Dr. Carter's contributions to UArizona extend to her service as an exceptional mentor and advisor to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and her ongoing and demonstrated advocacy for inclusiveness, especially in STEM fields.
Associate Professor Christopher Hamilton is the recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Iceland for Planetary Analog Research in Iceland: Investigations of the 1783–1784 Laki and 2014–2015 Holuhraun Lava Flow-Fields. Dr. Hamilton will work with colleagues at the University of Iceland to document the products of Icelandic flood lava eruptions as well as their impacts on the environment, including astrobiologically relevant lava-water interactions. This project includes three major objectives: geomorphological mapping of the Holuhraun lava flow-field to relate observed surface textures to eyewitness accounts of the eruption; determination of sources for endospore-forming microbial organisms identified within Holuhraun’s lava-induced hot springs; and examination of newly exposed deposits at the northern end of the Laki cone row, where a previously undocumented subglacial fissure segment is now exposed due to ice retreat.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Hamilton will share knowledge and foster meaningful connections across communities in the United States and Iceland. Fulbrighters engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs, and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad. As Fulbright Scholar alumni, their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of esteemed scholars, many of whom are leaders in their fields. Alumni include 60 Nobel Prize laureates, 86 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 37 who have served as a head of state or government.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to forge lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries, counter misunderstandings, and help people and nations work together toward common goals. Since its establishment in 1946, the Fulbright Program has enabled more than 390,000 dedicated and accomplished students, scholars, artists, teachers, and professionals of all backgrounds to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and find solutions to shared international concerns. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.
Regents' Professor Alfred McEwen has been elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. Fellows are named "in recognition of a sustained record of distinguished contributions to the geosciences and the Geological Society of America through such avenues as publications, applied research, teaching, administration of geological programs, contributing to the public awareness of geology, leadership of professional organizations." Professor McEwen is Principal Investigator (PI) for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet, one of six instruments onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. He is also PI for the Io Volcano Observer, or IVO, mission, which is among the four finalists for the next $500 million NASA Discovery mission. If selected, IVO will orbit Jupiter and make 10 close flybys of its moon Io – the most volcanically active world in the solar system – to determine if the moon has a magma ocean hidden beneath its vibrant, pockmarked surface.
Associate Professor Christopher Hamilton was appointed as a Scialog Fellow in the Signatures of Life in the Universe initiative, a three-year program co-sponsored by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the Heising-Simons Foundation, with support from the Kavli Foundation. Signatures of Life in the Universe will bring together scientists from many disciplines to initiate research on the topics of habitability of planets, detection of life beyond Earth, and life in extreme environments on Earth or in Earth’s distant past.
