Northern New Mexico and the KT Boundary Layer
by Shane Byrne
This trip took us farther afield than any in recent memory, as we ventured into New Mexico and Colorado and logged about 1500 miles over five days. We had three great sites to visit and couldn’t decide between them and so in the end decided to do everything.
The theme of this year's Summer Science Saturday was Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite! The day-long event, held on July 20, featured great kids activities like making paper rockets and planispheres, building volcanoes (like those on Io), and learning about physics, spectroscopy, robots, rockets, and so much more. The OSIRIS-Rex Ambassadors helped to cool off the crowd with asteroid ice cream, handmade by each guest.
This summer, LPL graduate students, led by Rob Zellem, worked with the UA College of Science to develop and organize the Starlight Science Cinema concept. Starlight Science Cinema features free science-themed movies screened outdoors on the UA campus, hosted by UA scientists who talk about their research, conduct a Q & A about the movie's premise, and, when appropriate, debunk the films' scientific themes.
Cassandra Lejoly is a senior at the University of Arizona, majoring in Math and Astronomy and minoring in Planetary Sciences and Physics. Thanks to travel funding provided by a generous donor, Cassandra was able to attend the DPS meeting in Denver to present her research on comet Halley.
October 12 was a busy night on the UA campus—in addition to Starlight Science Cinema, LPL students, faculty, and staff participated in events for International Observe the Moon Night, organized at the UA by Sanlyn Buxner (PSI Education and Research Specialist) and the Planetary Science Institute.
Travel, whether to conferences or to work in other laboratories, can be crucially important for students’ career development, but is not always easy to fund. For the last several years, the Shandel Fund has provided some support for student travel, but the number of applications has, not surprisingly, exceeded the capacity of the single fund.
Although Tucson area residents are aware of the things that people at LPL have done, they seldom identify them with LPL, but are more likely to think they’ve been done by “NASA” or “Kitt Peak.” In an attempt to raise awareness of LPL itself among community leaders, Dan Cavanagh, the Chair of the LPL External Advisory Board, arranged with the staff of U.S.
Orbiting Ray Bradbury's Mars: Biographical, Anthropological, Literary, Scientific and Other Perspectives
Edited by Gloria McMillan
McFarland Publishers, 2013.
by Gloria McMillan
With regret, we forward the news that two long-time LPL staffers recently passed away.
Sam Clapp died on August 26, 2013. Sam was a project manager who worked on numerous spaceflight missions at LPL.
Ron James was an instrument maker/designer for LPL and Steward. He also passed away in August 2013.
LPL extends sincere condolences to the family and friends of Sam and Ron.
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