Faculty News

Kudos to Assistant Professor Kristopher Klein, Deputy Principal Investigator for HelioSwarm, on having the mission proposal chosen by NASA as one of five Medium-Class Explorer proposals that will each receive $1.25 million to conduct a nine-month mission concept study. The proposed missions aim to help improve our understanding of the dynamics of the Sun and the constantly changing space environment with which it interacts around Earth. The information will improve understanding about the universe as well as offer key information to help protect astronauts, satellites, and communications signals—such as GPS—in space. Following the study period, NASA will choose up to two proposals to go forward to launch. Each potential mission has a separate launch opportunity and timeframe.

HelioSwarm would observe the solar wind over a wide range of scales to determine the fundamental space physics processes that lead energy from large-scale motion to cascade down to finer scales of particle movement within the plasma that fills space, a process that leads to the heating of such plasma. Using a swarm of nine SmallSat spacecraft, HelioSwarm would gather multi-point measurements and be able to reveal the three-dimensional mechanisms that control the physical processes crucial to understanding our neighborhood in space. Professor Harlan Spence at the University of New Hampshire leads the mission as Principal Investigator.

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) inaugurated its Fellows Program with a 2020 legacy class that included several LPL scientists:

• Professor Emeritus William Hubbard
• Regents' Professor George Rieke
• Robert Seaman, Senior Data Engineer
• Visiting Research Scholar Mark Giampapa
• Visiting Research Scholar Jack Harvey
• Visiting Research Scholar John Leibacher
• Visiting Research Scientist Neil Sheeley

Two LPL alumni were also named as AAS Fellows:

• Dale Cruikshank (NASA Ames Research Center)
• Faith Vilas (Planetary Science Institute)

Dr. Christopher Hamilton has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Dr. Hamilton's research focuses on geological surface processes to better understand the evolution of the Earth and other planetary bodies. His specialty relates to volcanology and specifically to lava flows, magma-water interactions, and explosive eruptions using a combination of field observations, remote sensing, geospatial analysis, machine learning, and geophysical modeling.

Dr. Walter Harris has been promoted to Full Professor. Dr. Harris' research is focused on the structure of thin atmospheres and their transition to and interactions with the space environment. He is particularly interested in the information that comet atmospheres provide about basic photochemical processes, the formation of the solar system, and the characteristics of the solar wind. He is also engaged in an ongoing study of the plasma interface between the solar wind and interstellar medium via remote sensing of interstellar neutral material as it passes through the solar system.

Assistant Professor Jessica Barnes was profiled by Nature magazine (10 July 2019) as a researcher whose work will shape the next 50 years of lunar research.

Assistant Professor Lynn Carter was named a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Assistant Professor Kristopher Klein received the 2019 NASA Early Career Investigator Program (Heliophysics) Award in the first year of the program.

Professor Amy Mainzer has been elected Vice Chair of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences. The position is a one-year term (2019-2020).

Professor Adam Showman was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU); this honor is reserved for 0.1% for the AGU's membership each year. Professor Showman was recognized at Honors Tribute during the fall 2019 AGU meeting.

Dr. Robert McMillan, Associate Research Scientist and Principal Investigator for the SPACEWATCH® program at LPL, retired on June 30, 2019. Bob began his career at LPL in 1979 as a Research Associate and became an Associate Research Scientist in 1995. Although he has “retired,” Bob is still managing SPACEWATCH® and scanning the skies from Kitt Peak. The SPACEWATCH® team had the pleasure this summer of hosting a celebration to congratulate Bob on his long career and retirement, and to wish him clear skies on his upcoming observing runs.

Senior Research Scientist Dr. Jozsef Kota retired from LPL this spring (2019). Dr. Kota began his career at LPL in 1996 as a Staff Scientist; however, Jozsef has been working at or with LPL since 1985 under the title of Visiting Scientist.

Dr. Kota received his Ph.D. in Physical Sciences from Roland Eötvös University (Budapest, Hungary) in 1980. His research interests include galactic and anomalous cosmic rays in the heliosphere and solar modulation and anisotropies of cosmic rays; theoretical and numerical modeling of the transport and acceleration of charged energetic particles; space weather; solar energetic particles; solar wind and modeling the evolution of shock waves; and the interaction of solar wind and interstellar matter.

Congratulations to Dr. Travis Barman, who was promoted to Full Professor, and to Dr. Lynn Carter, who has earned Tenure. Travis has been with LPL since 2013; his research interests include exoplanets and planetary formation and evolution. Lynn joined LPL in 2016; her research focus is planetary surfaces.

LPL is proud to announce that Professor Alfred McEwen has been appointed as a Regents' Professor by the Arizona Board of Regents. The title of Regents’ Professor is reserved for full professors whose exceptional achievements merit national and international distinction. Regents' Professor appointments are limited to no more than 3% of the total number of the university’s tenured and tenure track faculty members.

Professor McEwen is also the recipient of the 2019 G.K. Gilbert Award, presented by the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in recognition of outstanding contributions to the interdisciplinary field of planetary geology. The Gilbert Award will be presented at the GSA meeting on September 24.

Professor McEwen is the principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. HiRISE has produced extremely-high-resolution images of the Martian surface since the launch of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005.

McEwen has made two discoveries about the geology of Mars from his detailed analyses of HiRISE and other Martian data. First, McEwen says Martian slopes show enigmatic flows that are actively forming at the present day and may provide evidence for water on Mars. Second, McEwen has shown that the practice of counting small craters is not always a reliable indicator of the age of a planetary surface, as many small craters can be produced from the high-velocity ejecta of larger impacts.

McEwen’s work has helped change the scientific viewpoint of Mars from that of a dead planet to one with a dynamic surface, largely as a result of science done using the HiRISE camera, the construction and operations of which he has led for more than a decade.

McEwen’s accomplishments were recognized with a NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2011, the American Geophysical Union Whipple Award in 2015, and designation as a UA College of Science Galileo Circle Fellow in 2015.

McEwen, a planetary geologist, has been a member of the UA faculty since 1996. He is a professor of planetary sciences at the  Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, a professor of geosciences and director of the Planetary Image Research Laboratory. In addition to HiRISE, his spacecraft involvement currently includes being co-investigator on the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, launched in 2016, co-investigator on the LROC team on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to the moon, and deputy principle investigator of the Europa Imaging System on the Europa Clipper mission, to launch in 2022 or later. Previously, McEwen was a member of the imaging science team of the Cassini mission to Saturn, which began in 1990 and ended in 2018, among other missions.

He is also a devoted educator. McEwen designed the “Mars” course for upper-level graduates and has served as a mentor for many students at all degree levels.

Dr. Jessica Barnes joined the LPL faculty as an Assistant Professor in August (2019), after holding a position as a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Jess’ research centers on understanding the origin and evolution of volatiles in the inner Solar System. She utilizes a combination of electron microscopy and high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry to study extraterrestrial materials. Jess’ research background is in lunar mineralogy and geochemistry. Most recently she has been using coordinated electron and ion beam studies of meteorites to investigate the evolution of water in the Martian crust and to assess the inventories and origins of volatiles on primitive chondrite and achondrite parent bodies. 

Jess was born in London, grew up in Belfast, and later moved to Scotland where she graduated from the University of St. Andrews with a B.Sc. in Geosciences. She obtained her Ph.D. in Planetary and Space Sciences from The Open University (England). Her doctoral work focused on measuring water in lunar samples in order to better understand the accretion history and magmatic evolution of the Moon. As pastimes, Jess enjoys going to the gym, hiking, and travelling.

Dr. Pierre Haenecour joined LPL as an Assistant Professor in October 2019. He  grew up in Brussels (Belgium) and graduated with B.A. and M.S. degrees in Geology and Geochemistry from the Free University of Brussels. In 2011, Pierre moved to St. Louis (Missouri) for his Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University, where he studied stardust grains (also referred as circumstellar ‘presolar’ grains) identified in early solar system materials, such as meteorites and micrometeorites. He then worked at LPL as a postdoctoral research associate with Dr. Tom Zega to investigate the origin of organic matter in meteorites.

His current research interests focus on the building blocks and early history of the Solar System, and the origin of life through the coordinated study of circumstellar and interstellar dust grains and organic molecules in unequiliberated planetary materials (micrometeorites and interplanetary dust particles).

Dr. Amy Mainzer, one of the world's leading scientists in asteroid detection and planetary defense, began her career at LPL this fall (2019). Dr. Mainzer was previously a senior research scientist in the Science Division at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she specialized in astrophysical instrumentation and infrared astronomy.

As principal investigator of NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission, or NEOWISE, Dr. Mainzer has overseen the largest space-based asteroid-hunting project in history, resulting in the detection and characterization of an unprecedented number of asteroids and comets, including objects that could potentially pose a hazard to Earth at some point in the future. Dr. Mainzer also is the principal investigator of the proposed NASA Near-Earth Object Camera, or NEOCam, a next generation space telescope that would use a similar scientific approach to fulfill a mandate from the U.S. Congress to discover nearly all of the space rocks that could pose a significant threat to Earth.

Dr. Mainzer holds a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology. She graduated with honors from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science. Prior to joining JPL in 2003, she worked as an engineer at Lockheed Martin, where she built the fine guidance camera for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

Passionate about making science accessible to all, Mainzer serves as the curriculum adviser and on-camera host for the PBS Kids series "Ready Jet Go!" – a television show aimed at teaching space and Earth science to children ages 3-8 that airs in 176 countries around the world with nearly 300 million views. Mainzer also has appeared in numerous interviews for the History Channel, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, the BBC and other networks.

In 2018, she received the NASA Exceptional Public Service medal for her work on near-Earth asteroids. Other awards include the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (2012), the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal (2011), and several NASA group achievement awards for her contributions to the Spitzer, WISE and NEOWISE missions.

Kudos to Assistant Professor Christopher Hamilton, named one of Science News magazine's 10 young scientists to watch (SN10; the only planetary scientist in the list). Christopher spends some of his time studying terrestrial volcanic areas like Iceland and Hawai’i, and then applies that knowledge to volcanoes all over the solar system.

Professor Hamilton received the Geological Society of America (GSA) Early Career Award in the Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology, & Volcanology Division and was previously awarded a NASA Early Career Fellowship and a faculty fellowship from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, which provided a stipend and a 10-week summer residency at Marshall Space Flight Center.