Faculty News

Dr. Ilaria Pascucci recently joined PTYS/LPL as an astrophysicist and Assistant Professor. Before joining LPL in March of this year, she was working at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore as instrument scientist for the STIS spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Ilaria completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Bologna in Italy and obtained her Ph.D. in astrophysics in 2004 at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

Professor Pascucci's research focuses on observations and modeling of the formation and evolution of planetary systems. She is particularly interested in merging the cosmochemical constraints on the solar nebula evolution with the astronomical perspective of protoplanetary disk evolution and planet formation.

Her research activities include studies of the mineralogy of protoplanetary disks, the evolution and dispersal of the pre-planetary material around young stars, and the evolution of volatiles in protoplanetary disks in relation to their delivery to terrestrial planets. For her research, Dr. Pascucci is using state-of-the-art ground- and space-based facilities including the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, the Herschel Space Observatory, and 8m-class ground-based telescopes such as Keck and the VLT.

Welcome, Ilaria!

My research involves trying to understand the gas motions and magnetic field generation in the solar interior. I generally approach this problem using large scale numerical simulations. The Sun is an excellent testbed for hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic theory because of the strict observational constraints provided by helioseismology.

I was a University of Arizona undergraduate, did my Ph.D. in Santa Cruz and a postdoc in Boulder, so I have been able to live in a lot of nice places. Before I was a student I was in the Air Force, where I was in intelligence. I was stationed in Alaska, so you can imagine what kind of work I did. When I am not working I spend most of my time exercising in one form or another. I particularly like running, climbing and crossfit. I have two dogs, Io and Genius, not appropriately named, and a boyfriend who lives across an ocean, so I spend a lot of time in an airplane. 

I've been an assistant professor at the PTYS/LPL since fall of 2007. I moved from Ireland to the United States in 1998 to pursue graduate studies in planetary science at the California Institute of Technology. After five enjoyable years in Pasadena, I spent two years in both Boston (at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Flagstaff (at the U.S. Geological Survey) as a postdoc. My wife and I now live in Tucson with our three kids, two cats, one dog and assorted fish. Despite (or maybe because of) growing up on an island where billions of tons of water fall out of the sky each year, I like the desert and enjoy hiking and camping when possible.

During my stays in Flagstaff and Tucson, I have worked mostly with data from the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). My research interests encompass surface processes on planetary bodies throughout the solar system. I am especially interested in those processes that affect, or are driven by, planetary ices. Current work includes modeling of landscape evolution of the martian polar caps, concentration of volatiles in the polar craters of the Moon and Mercury, fractal descriptions of topography as deduced from Titan's shorelines and seasonal volatile transport on large asteroids such as Ceres.

On Monday, October 19, Professor Robert Strom received the Geological Society of America's G.K. Gilbert Award at the GSA meeting in Portland. Jay Melosh presented the award.

The G. K. Gilbert Award is presented annually by the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America for outstanding contributions to the solution of fundamental problems in planetary geology in the broadest sense, which includes geochemistry, mineralogy, petrology, geophysics, geologic mapping, and remote sensing.

Such contributions may consist either of a single outstanding publication or a series of publications that have had great influence in the field. The award is named for the pioneering geologist G. K. Gilbert.

Please join us in congratulating Javier Martin-Torres (Associate Staff Scientist) on his receipt of the Earth and Planetary Physics Special Award from the Spanish Royal Society of Physics.

This award was given in recognition of Javier's "contributions to radiative transfer modeling in Earth and planetary atmospheres and outstanding contributions in ESA and NASA space missions, which help us understand the physical processes of the Earth's atmosphere."

Congratulations to Bill Boynton, who received in May the Exceptional Public Service Medal for the TEGA investigation on the PHOENIX Mars Mission. The exceptional Public Service Medal is the second highest award that NASA gives to non-government personnel.

Congratulations to Research Professor Emeritus Martin Tomasko on receipt of the 2010 Alvin Seiff award. The Alvin Seiff Memorial Award, presented annually at the International Planetary Probe Workshop, recognizes and honors a scientist, engineer, technologist, or mission planner for outstanding career achievements and contributions to the understanding of planetary (including Titan) atmospheres utilizing high speed entry probes.

The citation for this award reads as follows:

Dr. Martin Tomasko, University of Arizona
In recognition of seminal contributions to the development of instrumentation for in situ studies of planetary atmospheres, including the Venus atmosphere from the Pioneer multiprobe mission, the Jupiter atmosphere from the Galileo probe, and the Titan atmosphere from the Huygens probe, and for career achievements in the understanding of the composition, cloud structure, and heat balance of planetary atmospheres throughout the solar system, the IOC of International Planetary Probe workshop bestows the 2010 Alvin Seiff award upon Dr. Martin Tomasko.

More information about the Alvin Seiff Memorial Award is available on the Planetary Probe site.

Professor Emeritus Robert Strom has been elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA). Bob's election was published in the July issue of "GSA Today" and will be announced at the Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony at the GSA Annual Meeting in Denver on October 30.

On April 27, Jonathan Lunine, Professor of Planetary Sciences and Physics, was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. This election is considered one of the highest honors a U.S. scientist or engineer can achieve. Jonathan joins previously elected PTYS/LPL Professors Donald M. Hunten, J. Randy Jokipii, and H. Jay Melosh in election to the National Academy.

Lunine joins 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 14 countries selected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Those elected this year bring the total number of active members to 2,097. Lunine is the only newly elected member from Arizona. 

Professor Richard "Koz" Kozlowski died on July 12, 2011. Koz was a long-time visiting professor at LPL and worked extensively on spectroscopic studies of Mercury, the Moon, and Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Ann Sprague and Don Hunten.

Professor Kozlowski's home institution, Susquehanna University, issued a memorial notice.