Spring

Professor Richard Greenberg and Regents' Professor J.R. "Randy" Jokipii have announced their plans to retire in 2015.

Rick Greenberg began his career at LPL in 1986 as a Senior Research Scientist before becoming a Professor in 1990. His research has centered on investigations of the dynamical evolution of the solar system, including studies of asteroids, meteorites, planetary rings, and the formation of the planets. Rick has had a long-term research program in tidal processes and orbital resonances among natural satellites, and their implications for the history and physical character of the satellites. Recent work has included studies of the tidal evolution of extra-solar planets and the implications for planetary-system formation and planetary properties. Greenberg was a member of the Imaging Team for NASA's Galileo spacecraft mission from 1977 until 2003, where his research became focused on characterizing and interpreting Jupiter's satellite Europa. This work led to the publication of Unmasking Europa in 2008. 

From 1989 until 2000, Professor Greenberg  led the University of Arizona's campus-wide initiative in support of pre-college science, mathematics, and technology education as founder and director of the Science and Mathematics Education Center (SAMEC). SAMEC accomplishments included reform of the teacher-preparation program, unique new procedures for appropriate evaluation and reward for faculty efforts in education, cultivation and coordination of sponsored projects across the campus, and integration of the K-12 science and mathematics teaching communities into the education activities of the university. He also founded and directed the Image Processing for Teaching (IPT) project, and was founding CEO of the non-profit Center for Image Processing in Education, Inc., the dissemination entity for IPT, which gave students in classrooms across the nation the power to engage in substantive scientific exploration and discovery using state-of-the-art digital image processing.

Professor Greenberg has mentored many PTYS students over the years, including William Bottke (PTYS), Melissa Dykhuis (PTYS), Sarah E. Frey (Applied Math), Greg Hoppa (PTYS), Terry Hurford (PTYS), Brian Jackson (PTYS), Michael Nolan (PTYS), David O'Brien (PTYS), James Richardson (PTYS), Chris Schaller (PTYS), Joseph Spitale (PTYS), Randy Tufts (Geosciences), and Christa L. Van Laerhoven (PTYS).

Randy Jokipii has spent the majority of his professional career at LPL—over 40 years. Prior to joining LPL as a full professor in 1973, he was on the faculty at both the University of Chicago and Caltech. He is one of the world’s leading theoreticians on the study of cosmic rays in the Galaxy and solar system. He is responsible for many of the field’s current paradigms including the origin of the 22-year cycle in the intensity of galactic cosmic rays seen at Earth. Professor Jokipii has had very broad research interests at LPL including cosmic-ray astrophysics, solar, heliospheric and astrophysical plasma physics, plasma and magnetic field turbulence in astrophysical fluids, and the acceleration of charged nuclei to high energies by astrophysical shock waves. He has had formal involvement in a number of spacecraft missions, including Ulysses as an Interdisciplinary Scientist, and as a Guest Investigator for both the Advanced Composition Explorer mission and Voyager Interstellar Mission, the latter of which he remains actively involved.

In 1985, Professor Jokipii led a proposal for a legislative decision package to establish a theoretical astrophysics program (TAP) at the University of Arizona. The Arizona state legislature voted this program into existence with a line item in the state budget in June 1985.  Professor Jokipii was named the founding director of TAP, and served for more than a decade in that capacity. His vision was that "a strong, coordinated theoretical astrophysics program—coupled with the existing observational program—can provide an increased intellectual basis for research in astronomy, planetary sciences, physics and indeed many other areas on campus."  TAP quickly hired several new faculty (Adam Burrows, David Arnett, Ramesh Narayan, Jonathan Lunine) whose strong record of research and scholarship brought them wide recognition and honors and soon catapulted the University of Arizona into national stature in theoretical astrophysics.

Professor Jokipii is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Geophysical Union. He was named a University Regents' Professor in 1996 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. His former Ph.D. students include Guy Consolmagno (PTYS), Vladimir Florinski (PTYS), Chung-Ming Ko (Physics), David Kopriva (Applied Math), Vladimir Pariev (Astronomy), Chunsheng Pei (AMe), Lance Williams (PTYS), and Aramais Zakharian (PTYS).

Congratulations to Melissa and Nathan Dykhuis, who welcomed a new son, Jonathan Joseph, born April 17, 9.0 lbs and 21 inches. Melissa writes, "He's got the sleep schedule of an astronomer already, and has a head start learning the names of the planets from his excited older brother, Matthew."

Professor Renu Malhotra has been elected as a member of both the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

The NAS is a private, non-profit society of scholars, established in 1863. It provides objective advising on science and technology issues. Members are elected by their peers in recognition of distinguished and continuing accomplishments in original research. Approximately 500 of its members  have won Nobel Prizes. LPL faculty members Randy Jokipii, Jay Melosh (Emeritus), and George Rieke are also elected members of the National Academy of Sciences.

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences is one of the oldest and most prestigious academic societies in the U.S. It was established in 1780 to convene leaders from a variety of disciplines (academic, business, government) for the purpose of addressing critical challenges to society. Notable members from the discipline of science have included Percival Lowell, Albert Einstein, and Mariah Mitchell. Among the Academy Fellows, there are more than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Professor Malhotra received her Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell. Her research focus is orbital dynamics and theoretical astrophysics. She was the awarded the Harold C. Urey Prize (AAS Division for Planetary Sciences) in 1997. Professor Malhotra joined the LPL faculty in 2000. In 2010, she was named a Galileo Circle Fellow of the University of Arizona. Professor Malhotra is Chair of the Theoretical Astrophysics Program at the University of Arizona.

More information about Professor Malhotra and her election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and to the National Academy of Sciences is available from two UA News articles: Academy Elects UA Planetary Sciences Professor and UA Professor Elected to National Academy of Sciences. A celebration in honor of these achievements was held at LPL on April 30,

Congratulations to Professor Malhotra!

Spring is a busy time for outreach! LPL students, faculty, staff, and volunteers have reached well over 5,000 people this spring semester alone—ranging from introducing preschoolers to “space rocks” to giving popular monthly lectures at Borderlands Brewery as part of our Space Drafts Public Talk Series, a collaboration with Steward Observatory and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO).

Other highlights for the semester included LPL participation in two events held in Phoenix: Saturday, January 31, at the Connect2STEM event on UA’s Biomedical Campus, and February 1 at the pre-Super Bowl XLIX festivities. LPL students and staff were there to showcase the department's broad research strengths and 500 football and science fans alike enjoyed learning about the OSIRIS-REx mission as well as how we discover and characterize exoplanets.

LPL graduate student Sarah Morrison and OSIRIS-REx Ambassador/LPL staff Jonna Zucarelli show off the OSIRIS-REx mission and how we use spectroscopy to figure out the composition of objects in our Solar System and beyond at Connect2STEM on January 31, 2015.

LPL activity tables at the Tucson Festival of Books (TFoB) were huge hits this year. The department had a strong presence at TFoB's Science City, with participation from OSIRIS-REx (led by Dolores Hill), Teaching Teams (led by Dr. Steve Kortenkamp), and LPL graduate students (led by Sarah Morrison), along with LPL’s Maria Schuchardt as Science City’s Science of Tomorrow tent manager. The graduate students themselves talked directly with over 530 people about our Solar System and beyond!

LPL graduate student Donna Viola wows a family at the Tucson Festival of Books with a comparison of our terrestrial planets on March 14, 2015.

The LPL Speaker Request form has increased our visibility to the community and allowed us to reach a more diverse audience ranging from preschool children to retirees. Keep those requests coming!

We have many more events on the way, so stay tuned!

LPL has a long history and much experience with tracking space rocks. From astronomical surveys such as SPACEWATCH® and the Catalina Sky Survey to the Meteorite Lab to the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, LPL knows asteroids and meteorites. Now, thanks to a generous gift from an anonymous donor, even more expert eyes will be trained on the sky over southern Arizona. A new collaboration between LPL, the Curtin University of Perth, Australia, and the Vatican Observatory will deploy a network of all-sky cameras throughout southern Arizona. Operating every night, the cameras will monitor the sky for incoming fireballs and help recover any meteorite dropping events in the area.

Phil Bland of the Curtin University operates the Desert Fireball Network which has been successful in the recovery of two observed meteorite falls, the Bunburra Rockhole eucrite in 2007, and an unpublished 2010 event in the Nullarbor Plains of Australia. The network consists of a number of semi-autonomous systems utilizing commercial DSLR cameras. Bland has agreed to provide 4 to 5 cameras for the Tucson area. The anonymous donation to LPL will allow the lab to match Bland’s contribution and build an additional 4 to 5 cameras.The first system will be shipped to Tucson next month for testing, with the remainder delivered throughout the year. Carl Hergenrother of LPL and Jean-Baptiste Kikwaya of the Vatican Observatory will operate the network with Bland.

With its clear skies and desert terrain, southern Arizona is a productive region for meteorite fall detection and recovery. The placement of the network across the region allows fireballs to be observed from multiple locations. By “triangulating” the path of a fireball from different locales, its atmospheric trajectory can be determined resulting in a better prediction of any fall sites and the object’s pre-atmospheric orbit around the Sun.

The new network will complement a group of three existing southern Arizona all-sky fireball cameras set up last fall on Mount Lemmon, Mount Hopkins, and Kitt Peak as a collaboration between NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, LPL, Vatican Observatory, Steward Observatory, MMT Observatory and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

LPL’s Jamie Molaro won the award for Outstanding Service and Outreach at the  8^th Annual College of Science Graduate Student Awards. The award, sponsored by the UA College of Science and the Associate Graduate Council, recognizes attention to broader impacts and involvement in activities outside of academic responsibilities that benefit the department, university and the larger community (e.g., representing graduate student interests on councils or committees, organizing graduate student events, assisting departmental recruitment, participating in K-12 outreach, etc.). Jamie more than met these criteria through her efforts in developing and organizing The Art of Planetary Science (TAPS) in 2013 and for leading the exhibit in its second, even more successful incarnation in 2014.

TAPS has become a community event, thanks to Jamie's efforts at networking and building partnerships with local artists, museums, and with local business. For 2014, Jamie crafted a significant new partnership with the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), dramatically increased the participation of the IAAA in this year’s art show, and also collaborated extensively with the local Tucson chapter of the IAAA in ensuring cross-advertisement between TAPS and the IAAA’s own local art show. Jamie also pursued new partnerships with the College of Science, which culminated in a private, catered showing for the Galileo Circle the night prior to the grand opening. Jamie strengthened existing partnerships that she had developed in 2013, most notably with the Tucson Museum of Art’s “Art on Tap” — an art and craft beer festival. Through collaboration with Tucson Museum of Art, Jamie was able to have the winners of TAPS and several selected works displayed while providing free access to the show for artists. Lastly, Jamie also coordinated advertisement for the art show, including talking with reporters for the Arizona Daily Star, UA News, The Daily Wildcat, and NPR. Jamie has also presented The Art of Planetary Science to the scientific community, with posters and talks at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) and American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Science (DPS) conference. These presentations serve to inform fellow scientists and science educators on how we created and executed such a successful art show—with the aim of inspiring similar programs at other institutions and attracting scientists to submit artwork for future shows. As this weren't enough, Jamie also coordinated with the organizers of the October 2014 DPS meeting (held in Tucson) to allow a miniature showing of the artwork at the conference.

Thanks to Jamie Molaro, the 2014 Art of Planetary Science was a resounding success, with more than 200 pieces of artwork from 90 artists and scientists. The show spanned three floors of the Kuiper Space Sciences building, which was transformed into an art gallery. Over the three nights of the art show (plus the special Galileo Circle event), TAPS drew a crowd of over 800 people—over double what we saw in the first show in 2013. The artists sold several dozen pieces of artwork, making over $2,000 for the local Tucson art community, along with several hundred dollars in donation to the College of Science and to LPL.

Jamie's award was announced at a reception held on April 7. This is the fourth consecutive year that an LPL graduate student has won one of the three college-wide awards. Given that our graduate students are competing against the best students from 11 other departments, having a winner four years in a row speaks to the excellence of our graduate students.

Congratulations, Jamie!