Department News

Former longtime LPL staff member Tom Teska passed away on March 15, 2013.  Tom was the Manager for Mike Drake's Microprobe Lab from the early 1970s until 1998, when he retired.

LPL often gets mentioned alongside our well known colleagues across Cherry Street in Steward Observatory. It’s not so often that we are mentioned alongside our other well known colleagues across University Boulevard who play in McKale Center, but we did manage to rate a mention in Sports Illustrated this year. Check it out!

The first two installments of what is hoped will be a regular series of talks referred to as the LPL Staff Colloquium were held on Thursday, February 7, and Tuesday, May 7.

In February, members of Professor Alfred McEwen's HiRISE team spoke about their work and roles on the mission project. The colloquium was held in the Sonett Building and refreshments were served.

Congratulations to Terry Forrester, recipient of this year's LPL Staff Excellence Award, and kudos to Bert Orosco, cited as an honorable mention for the award. 

LPL alumna and E/PO lead for OSIRIS-REx, Anna Spitz, is one of the editors of a new volume (September 2013) from the University of Arizona Press.Encountering Life in the Universe: Ethical Foundations and Social Implications of Astrobiology, edited by Chris Impey, Anna H. Spitz, and William Stoeger, "examines the intersection of scientific research and socity to further explore the ethics of how to behave in a universe where much is unknown."

On Monday, March 25th, I had the honor to give two briefings on the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission to policy makers in Washington DC. OSIRIS-REx will visit asteroid 1999 RQ36, a carbon‐ and water‐rich object that is also one of the most potentially hazardous near‐Earth asteroids. This visit was scheduled in conjunction with the OSIRIS-REx Independent Assessment Review (IAR) on March 26th. The IAR is the last of a mission Preliminary Design Reviews and focuses on the credibility of the management, cost, and schedule plans.

The OSIRIS-REx mission was highlighted in the Spring 2013 edition of Arizona, the UA alumni magazine, with a suite of six articles featuring Professor Dante Lauretta and some of the UA students (graduate and undergraduate) working on the mission project.

In celebration of Women's History Month 2013 (Women Inspiring Innovation Through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), the OSIRIS-REx team developed some online resources for promoting celebrating women in STEM careers. Several current and former LPL faculty, staff, and students are featured, including Nadine Barlow, Veronica Bray, Kat Crombie, Renu Malhotra, Elisabetta Pierazzo, and Elizabeth Roemer. 

Sarah Mattson, Senior Staff Technician with theHiRISE project, received an Emily Krauz scholarship from the University of Arizona Staff Advisory Council for the fall 2012 semester.