Alumni News

LPL alumna Dr. Ali Bramson (2018) and Dr. Michael Sori (Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have joined the faculty of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) at Purdue University as Assistant Professors.

Before joining Purdue, both Ali and Mike were postdoctoral scholars at LPL. As postdocs, Ali worked with Professor Lynn Carter researching lava flows on the Moon with instruments onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft and Mike collaborated with professors Christopher Hamilton and Shane Byrne in the study of Mars and the Moon while also being involved in several NASA missions.

In the EAPS Department at Purdue, Ali and Mike will be teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in planetary geology while expanding their current research. Mike has stated that his experience at LPL, including working with students in lab groups and supporting their thesis projects, has prepared him for the next step as an Assistant Professor. 

Likewise, Ali has shared that while at LPL, she was actively involved in NASA spacecraft missions, which were crucial for her scientific interests, and led to great professional and academic opportunities. Ali is particularly excited about the interdisciplinary EAPS Department where she will collaborate with scientists who use similar techniques, but also engage in other problems that differ from her previous training.

Congratulations, Professor Bramson and Professor Sori!

LPL alumna Sarah Hörst (2011) is the recipient of a 2020 Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The Macelwane Medal is awarded to early career scientists making significant contributions to Earth and space science and recognizes excellence in research, creativity, service, outreach, and diversity. 

In 2019, Sarah received a 2020 Early Career Award from the Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society, which recognized her work in advancing our understanding of photochemical haze formation in planetary atmospheres within our solar system and beyond.

Dr. Hörst is currently Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

LPL alumna Dr. Elizabeth Turtle (1998), planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, is Principal Investigator for the Dragonfly mission to explore Titan. The mission leadership team includes another LPL alumnus (Dr. Jason Barnes, 2004) as well as a former LPL postdoctoral research associate (Dr. Ralph Lorenz). An additional six LPL student alumni are members of the Dragonfly science and engineering team.

Dr. Failth Vilas (1984) has been named Editor of Planetary Science Journal, a new open-access online journal published by the Amerian Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS). Dr. Vilas is  a Senior Scientist with the Planetary Science Institute. In 2018, she was awarded the Masursky Award from DPS for meritorious service to planetary science. 

Dr. Devon Burr (UArizona Geosciences, 2003, Baker) is now Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences, Northern Arizona University. Dr Burr’s primary interest are the landforms that result from fluid flow. Fluid flow includes flow by water that formed ancient rivers deposits on Mars, as well as flow in current rivers of liquid nitrogen on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Dr Burr also studies the deposits formed by the flow of air, or wind, on Mars and Titan. In addition, Dr. Burr studies lava flows on Mars and the tectonic landforms on icy satellites of the outer Solar System.

Dr. Joshua Emery (2002) has joined the faculty of Northern Arizona University as Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences. Emery applies the techniques of astronomical reflection and emission spectroscopy and spectrophotometry of primitive and icy bodies in the near- (0.8 to 5.0 microns) and mid-infrared (5 to 50 microns) to investigate the formation and evolution of the Solar System and the distribution of organic material. The Jupiter Trojan asteroids have been a strong focus of his research, and he also regularly observes Kuiper Belt objects, icy satellites, and other asteroid groups to understand the state of their surfaces as related to these topics. Along with telescopic observations, he contributes to Solar System exploration as a science team member on the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, the Lucy Trojan asteroid flyby mission, and the NEO Surveyor Mission infrared telescope mission.

Dr. Ingrid Daubar (2014) is now Assistant Professor of Research at Brown University. This cross-country move from California (JPL) to Rhode Island is only one of the changes in Ingrid's life this past year—the other being the birth of beautiful baby Arthur. Congratulations, Ingrid!

LPL alumna Sarah Hörst (2011) has been awarded the 2020 Early Career Award from the Laboratory Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society. 

The LAD Early Career Award is given to scientists who have made important contributions to laboratory astrophysics within ten years of receiving their Ph.D. Dr. Hörst was recognized for her work in advancing our understanding of photochemical haze formation in planetary atmospheres within our solar system and beyond. Dr. Hörst is currently Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Jani Radebaugh has been promoted from Associate to Full Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Brigham Young University.

Professor Radebaugh graduated from LPL in 2005; Alfred McEwen served as her advisor. She then began postdoctoral work with Dr. Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist who specializes in the origins and geologic histories of planetary landscapes from spacecraft images and Earth analogue field studies. Her current investigations include giant sand dunes, mountains, volcanoes, rivers and lakes on Saturn's moon Titan from the Cassini spacecraft and actively erupting volcanoes and mountains on Jupiter's moon Io. Dr. Radebaugh has done field work in the Sahara, Namibia, Arabia, Iran, the Ethiopian Afar Rift, Australia, the Argentine Altiplano, Hawaii and the desert southwestern U.S. She is a regular participant in the U.S. Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program, which returns samples from around the solar system including the Moon and Mars. Jani is a science contributor for the Discovery Channel's How the Universe Works, has given a TEDx talk on exploration, and is a speaker at the Spacefest Apollo astronaut convention. She is also a member of the LPL External Board of Advisors. You can follow Professor Radebaugh's geologic adventures on Twitter.

Allen W. Hatheway (M.S. ’66, Ph.D. ’71; Geological Engineering) was named by Gerard Kuiper as an LPL Research Associate to perform the terrestrial technical proof of Professor Robert Strom’s correct conclusion that the lunar dimple craters were, in reality, collapse depressions on basaltic lava fields. (As an unrelated yet interesting coincidence, Mrs. Kuiper had a first cousin, Sanford Dudley, who was Best Man at the 1930 marriage of Allen’s parents.)

Hatheway’s dissertation, Lava Tubes and Collapse Depressions, led to a long career in applied engineering followed by nineteen years as a professsor of Engineering at the University of Missouri.

In 1988, Allen began specializing in environmental remediation of former manufactured gas plants (1792-1990) and other coal-tar plants. Allen’s second gasworks technical monograph, co-authored by Tom B. Speight, was published in January 2018.

Ever hear of Nocturnal Aviation? From 1976 to 1981, LPL grad students Guy Consolmango, Nick Gautier, John Wacker, and Cliff Stoll ran a T-shirt printing enterprise. Nick built a wooden T-shirt printing press; John drove up to Phoenix and bought a few hundred blank shirts; Guy found space for the backyard escapade; Cliff arm-twisted the Kitt Peak Visitor Center into purchasing them. Together, we designed astronomical T-shirts and printed them using hand-cut silk screens.

Every few months, we'd gather at Hawthorne House [home to several LPL grad students] and squeeze ink through silk screens onto shirts. The stellar and solar designs sold like hotcakes up at Kitt Peak—supplementing our meager graduate assistantships with ink-spattered lucre. Other grad students tagged along for the nuttiness. Occasionally, a faculty member volunteered space: Professor Laurel Wilkening's driveway in Winterhaven (Tucson) probably still shows blotches of blue and red textile ink. Along the way, we printed the first Lunar & Planetary Lab T-shirt. Guy Consolmagno, not yet a Jesuit, came up with a suitable design and Latin inscription: Ex Nebula Solari, Planetes. We'd wanted this to mean, "Out of the solar nebula came planets." LPL's resident atmospheric chemist and latin scholar, Godfrey Sill, pointed out three mistakes in Guy's Latin (can you find 'em?).