Spring

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Professor Lynn Carter was promoted to Full Professor. Her research interests include volcanism and impact cratering on the terrestrial planets and the Moon, surface properties of asteroids and outer Solar System moons, planetary analog field studies, climate change, and the development of radar remote sensing techniques.

Dr. Carter is currently the Science Team Lead for the NASA-provided VenSAR radar on the ESA EnVision mission to Venus. In 2021, Professor Carter was named a University of Arizona Distinguished Scholar.

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Dr. Jeff Andrews-Hanna has been promoted to Full Professor. Dr. Andrews-Hanna's research focuses on understanding the processes acting on the surfaces and interiors of the solid-surface planets and moons in our Solar System. He is interested in geodynamic, tectonic, magmatic, hydrologic, and climatic processes, at scales ranging from local to global. To this end, he combines the analysis of gravity, topography, and other remote sensing datasets with numerical modeling. 

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Dr. Jessica Barnes has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure. 

Dr. Barnes' research focuses on understanding the origin and evolution of volatiles in the Solar System. She utilizes a combination of nano- and microanalytical techniques in the Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis (KALFAA) to study mineralogy, geochemistry, isotopes and petrological histories of a wide range of extraterrestrial materials. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2023 Nier Prize from the Meteoritical Society and the 2020 NASA inaugural Planetary Science Early Career Award. She was honored with a University of Arizona Galileo Circle Curie Award in 2024 and was named to the University of Arizona 2022 inaugural Women of Impact class.

The Curson Education Plus Fund in Planetary Sciences and LPL was established by Shirley Curson, a generous donor and friend of LPL, for the purpose of supporting travel expenses outside the state of Arizona during summer break. The award is open to students in the Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory who propose to fund study, museum visits, special exhibits, seminars, instruction, competitions, research and other endeavors that are beyond those provided by the normal campus environment and are not part of the student’s regular curriculum during the recipient’s school year.

To donate to the Curson Travel fund, visit the University of Arizona Foundation.

Advisor: Ilaria Pascucci
ESO RAVEYSO Conference, Garching, Germany

Presenting: The role of accretion and ejection variability in the evolution of young stars and their disks.

Read about Naman's presentation at ESO RAVEYSO
 

Advisor: Tom Zega
Canadian Center for Electron Microscopy Summer School, Hamilton, Ontario

Attending practical training and lectures in data processing and operation of telescopes.

Read about Maizey's experience at the CCEM Summer School

Lori Huseby
Advisor: Mark Marley
ExoSLAM Summer School and Exoclimes VII conference, Montreal, Quebec

Presenting research on exoplanet hazes

Read about Lori's travel for ExoSlam Summer School and Exoclimes VII conference

Previous Curson Award Recipients

LPL alumnus Dr. Dwight Hoxie passed away on December 27, 2024. 

Dwight earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of Arizona in 1969 with a dissertation titled The Structure and Evolution of Stars of Very Low Mass. 

Dr. Hoxie worked as a groundwater hydrologist at the United States Geological Survey, Reston (VA) Water Resources Division.

LPL alumni Dr. Michelle Thompson (2016) and Dr. James Keane (2017) were honored as 2024 Presidential Early Career Scientists by former U.S. President Joe Biden. The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers recognizes scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership early in their research careers and is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding early-career scientists and engineers.  

Michelle Thompson is an Associate Professor at Purdue University, where she studies the alteration of planetary materials after their formation, specifically the evolution of airless body surfaces. James Keane is a Scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he studies the interactions between orbital dynamics, rotational dynamics, and geologic processes on rocky and icy worlds across the solar system..

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Dora is majoring in Planetary Geosciences with minors in Astrobiology, Statistics and Data Science, and Leadership Studies and Practice. She chose the Astrobiology minor because of it’s interdisciplinary nature. She feels that this minor will give her the opportunity for a unique understanding about the the origins of life and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

Dora especially enjoyed topics studied in MCB 437: Life in Extreme Environments, which covered extremophiles, planetary analogs, and biological concepts. She was encouraged by instructor Dr. Solange Duhamel to explore these topics through a final project about extremophiles that could live on Europa.

Dora plans to attend graduate school to pursue research related to Europa or Mars. She also wants to participate in fieldwork on planetary analog sites and intends to use her skills in data science when the Europa Clipper mission sends data back to Earth. Currently, Dora works as a NASA Arizona Space Grant intern advised by Dr. Sarah Sutton (LPL). Using HiRISE images and spatial visualization software (QGIS), she has located over 2,000 meter-sized, deeply shadowed pits that appear in the layered deposits of Mars’ north polar region. Dora is conducting a time series analysis of pits in specific areas to understand their possible formation mechanisms and seasonal changes. In addition to her internship, Dora also works as a student research technician making digital terrain models in the HiRISE Digital Terrain Model lab.

When Dora has some free time, she likes to play guitar, read history books, spend time with her family and friends, and participate in science outreach at local schools in Tucson.

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Sarah Nielsen is a Biology and Biochemistry major with minors in Planetary Sciences, Astrobiology, and Emergency Medical Services. Sarah chose Planetary Sciences as a minor because she has been interested in space since she was a child and the PTYS and ASTRB minors allow her to take advantage of the University of Arizona’s great space related curriculum while continuing her love of exploration and discovery.

Sarah’s favorite Planetary Sciences class has been PTYS 214: Life in the Cosmos taught by Dr. Dante Lauretta. She took this as her first planetary science class during her first semester at the U of A. Sarah wanted to take a class that captured her combined interdisciplinary interests in the Earth and life sciences. She enjoyed learning how a few of the “simple” elements (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur) on the periodic table can form complex planetary systems that potentially sustain an environment to harbor life. This class also demontrated to Sarah how planetary science can contribute to other fields, like astrobiology, in answering some of the biggest questions about the universe, including how the planets of our Solar System originated and evolved, and how planetary conditions can impact life.

Sarah is currently working with Dr. Lauretta through the NASA Arizona Space Grant internship program, on a project studying how deep-sea samples near the Lost City Hydrothermal Field at the Atlantis Massif can be used as an analog for hydrothermal processes on asteroid Bennu. Sarah is using the electron microprobe in the Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory of Astromaterials Analysis to do this work.

Sarah plans on applying to M.D. or M.D./Ph.D. programs when she graduates. She wants to stay connected with space missions and make advancements in planetary sciences and astrobiology while also pursuing medicine as a physician.

When she is not working on schoolwork or research, Sarah enjoys practicing archery with the Wildcat Archery team and also enjoys drawing and painting. She is an ambassador for the Arizona Astrobiology Center, an activity which allows her to communicate her passion for astrobiology to the Tucson community through outreach events and other center projects.