Fall

These awards are intended for career advancement, usually associated with travel, for LPL students and staff. They are supported by gifts, typically of $500 or $1000, from donors. Videos from seven recipients appear below; the eighth student, Kyle Pearson, will be traveling to the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society being held January 2020.
 
Still from Cambioni's 2019 video

Saverio Cambioni

Saverio spent 3 months at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azure in Nice, France, where he investigated a new method, based on neural networks, for identifying the oldest collisional families of asteroids that formed in the earliest phases of our solar system and that have so far not been identified using classical methods.

Still from Cook's 2019 video

Claire Cook

Claire traveled to Redwood City, California, to attend a two-day training session for COMSOL geophysical modeling software, a program  she will use for her research. COMSOL is multipurpose but so complex that it requires in-person training; and, given that other students and faculty are interested in using the software for their own research groups, Claire's training experience will benefit others as well.

Still from Lejoly's 2019 video

Cassandra Lejoly

In August, Cassandra attended the Mike A'Hearn Symposium at the University of Maryland, where presented results of dust radial profiles of 41P/TKG, 45P/HMP, and 46P/Wirtanen.

Still from McFadden's 2019 video

Kiana McFadden

Kiana traveled to Houston this October to attend the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies (GCAGS) meeting, where she received an award for best student oral presentation of her paper titled, “Sedimentology, Petrography, and Mineralogy of the Tallahatta Formation near the City of Meridian, Mississippi.” The presentation was based on work she completed as an undergraduate at Jackson State University.

Still from Sharkey's 2019 video

Benjamin Sharkey

Ben was able to attend the 2019 joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences meeting (Sept. 15-19) held in Geneva, Switzerland; he presented his work on asteroids orbiting near Jupiter.

Still from Steinrueck's 2019 video

Maria Steinrueck

Maria presented her work on the mixing of photochemical hazes by the large-scale circulation in the atmospheres of hot Jupiter exoplanets at Extreme Solar Systems IV in Reykjavik, Iceland. With over 600 participants, this was the largest exoplanet conference ever held. Maria reports that she was able to participate in in-depth conversations with other scientists about their exoplanet research, resulting in a collaboration on a Hubble Space Telescope proposal. Maria was also able to explore Iceland's volcanic and glacial geology.

Still from Stone's 2019 video

Shane Stone

Shane attended the European Planetary Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences meeting and presented his work on the delivery of water to the upper atmosphere of Mars. He reports that the networking opportunities were particularly valuable, given that he is expecting to graduate in May 2020.

As reported in our spring newsletter, graduate student Rachel Fernandes won funding support from the Curson Education Plus Fund in Planetary Sciences and LPL for her summer research travel. Read on to learn about her trip to the 3rd Advanced School on Exoplanetary Science (ASES3), held in Vietri sul Mare (Salerno), Italy, from May 27-31.
The Curson Travel Award supported my travel to Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy, to participate in the 3rd Advanced School for Exoplanetary Science (ASES3) from 27th – 31st of May 2019. This year, the workshop focused on the demographics of planetary systems and was attended by early career exoplanetary scientists from all over the globe. The workshop was structured around a series of lectures by five of the leading researchers in the field: Dr. Scott Gaudi (The Ohio State University), Dr. Andrew Howard (California Institute of Technology), Dr. Alessandro Morbidelli (Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur), Dr. Sean Raymond (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux) and Dr. Antonino Lanza (Astrophysical Observatory of Catania). Each day, we had 4-6 hours of lectures on the topics of planet formation and dynamical evolution, star-planet interactions as well as observations and statistics from radial velocity and transit surveys (for close-in exoplanets), and microlensing, astrometry and direct imaging surveys (for wide-separation exoplanets).
 

I was fortunate enough to be one of the handful of school participants that were selected to give a short oral presentation on their research. My presentation, titled Hints for a Turnover at the Snowline in the Giant Planet Distribution, was focused on the first project I worked on at LPL with my advisor, Dr. Ilaria Pascucci, and Dr. Gijs Mulders. During this talk, I discussed our newly published result that shows a pile up in the distribution of giant planets at the snowline and its implications for (exo)planetary formation and migration. It was really nice to see our result gain the same amount of positive attention in the European exoplanetary community as it had in the American community.

The workshop also arranged a few outdoor social events for the participants. We visited the Archaeological Park of Paestum, which is home to three magnificent Doric temples that are thought to be dedicated to the city’s namesake Poseidon, Hera and Ceres. We also went on a boat tour of the Amalfi coast and explored the cobblestone streets and lush gardens of the city of Ravello. On the last day, we hiked the Paths of the Gods, a clifftop trail above the Amalfi coast which began in Agerola and ended in Nocelle, the upper part of Positano. The breathtaking views of the Amalfi Coast and the island of Capri made the two-hour long hike worthwhile.

Attending this workshop was highly beneficial to me as an early career scientist for the reason that unlike large conferences, the ASES3 workshop offered an ideal opportunity for networking and forming collaborations with an international group of students and experts in exoplanetary science which was important in formulating long- and short-term research ideas.

Jada Walters is the recipient of the 2019 Carson Fellowship Award, which provides one academic year of support, including salary, tuition, and a supply stipend. Jada is a first-year graduate student at LPL.  

Jada is an avid reader, and from childhood, the books that she liked best were science fiction novels that allowed her to visit faraway planets and galaxies. It didn’t stop at books—she also looked forward to watching episodes of Star Trek with her parents and playing space adventure games like Star Control II. As she grew up, her interest in space exploration grew as well, expanding to include the branches of science that enable humanity to explore our universe past the confines of our planet. She began to realize that scientific research was the avenue through which she would be able to understand and visit other planets beyond the pages of a book.

Jada attended the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2015 to 2018, graduating with a B.S. in Physics with a concentration in Astrophysics. While an undergraduate, she had the opportunity to research in multiple areas. Her first exposure to research was with Dr. Heidi Newberg at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As part of a 10-week summer REU program, she conducted research on the local velocity substructure of the Milk Way Galaxy using the Gaia and PPMXL catalogs. Jada was lucky enough to experience the practical scientific process during this time, complete with unexpected discrepancies, multiple dead-ends, and a glimmer of progress towards answering the physics questions motivating the research that made it all worth it. She returned to Georgia Tech certain that she wanted to continue research, but she wasn’t sure in what area. By chance, a class that she never planned to take shifted her research focus entirely.

After being waitlisted for an aerodynamics class, she stumbled upon an introductory space plasma physics course offered by the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences while looking to fill the gap in her schedule. That course, and the professor who taught it (Dr. Carol Paty), steered her in a new direction. She began to research Europa’s plasma environment with Dr. Paty and learned about the spacecraft mission applications of plasma physics research. Her interest in plasma physics continued into solar physics. As part of an REU at Montana State University, Jada worked in Dr. Dana Longcope’s research group. There, she researched magnetic reconnection in the solar corona using SDO data of emerging active regions.

At LPL, Jada is continuing to research in plasma physics, this time applied to the solar wind, with Dr. Kristopher Klein. She hopes to continue on to a career in research that allows her to apply theory and computer models to relevant spacecraft data.

The Lt. Col. Kenneth Rondo Carson and Virginia Bryan Carson Graduate Fellowship is an endowment established by the estate of Virginia B. Carson, honoring her husband, a former member of the "Flying Tigers," a former member of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff Strategic Air Command, retired master navigator and enthusiast of space exploration. Colonel Carson greatly admired the professionalism and accomplishments of NASA's space program. The Carson Fellowship is awarded to students pursuing degrees in the Department of Planetary Sciences, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, selected on the basis of academic achievement and the promise of further scholarly endeavor.
Second-year graduate student Allison McGraw (advised by Vishnu Reddy) was named an Arizona Space Grant Graduate Research Fellow for 2019.

My research resides in searching for linkages between the meteorites that fall onto Earth to their parent asteroids in the Solar System. Meteorites that arrive to Earth carry with them the history and chemical composition of various objects in the Solar System. They provide us with direct samples of their parent asteroids to be remotely studied here on Earth. To discover the linkages between meteorites and their parent asteroids I use spectroscopic techniques in visible and near-infrared wavelengths.

One of my major science career inspirations is to teach and give back to the community that helped foster my own love for planetary science. The Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium fosters such an environment here at The University of Arizona, and I am honored to be partnering with them in addition to NASA Space Grant for this project. My NASA Space Grant project is the construction of a Meteorite Planetarium Module, where I have the opportunity to teach the public about meteorites, and more specifically to visualize real meteorite data and information in a full 40-foot planetarium dome. My goal is to teach the public and young students the strange wonders of meteorites and the information they encompass about the Solar System through the various types of meteorite data and analysis techniques. Meteorite data will be visualized and displayed in the full dome, and will be offered within planetarium shows to the general public as well as local Southern Arizona school groups. Much of the meteorite data will be from here at the University of Arizona, highlighting the longstanding involvement of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory towards planetary and space sciences. As an undergraduate student, I worked at the Flandrau planetarium and also participated in the undergraduate NASA Space Grant program. Now as a graduate student in the program, I can bring these two critical components that nurtured my own career into a merged experience between science education and research.

                                    Indujaa Ganesh                                                              Allison McGraw

Two PTYS graduate students were awarded Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science Technology (FINESST) awards in 2019:

  • Indujaa Ganesh, Plumes and Pyroclasts: Understanding the Dynamics of Explosive Volcanism on Venus (advisor: Lynn Carter)
  • Allison McGraw, Observational Campaign for the Gefion Asteroid Family (advisor: Vishnu Reddy). 

Geosciences student Brandon Tober, advised by Professor Jack Holt, also received a FINESST award for A New Regional View of Alaskan Glaciers: Bed Elevation, Ice Thickness, and Flux.

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.

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