Graduate Student News

First-year graduate student Tad Komacek was named the recipient of the 2013 Carson Fellowship Award, which provides one academic year of support, including salary, tuition, and a small supply/travel stipend. Tad is currently working on modeling the effects of ohmic dissipation in hot Jupiter atmospheres, being advised by Dr.

LPL graduate student Catherine Elder received the 2013 Shandel summer travel award. The Shandel award funding helped support Catherine's travel to ETH Zurich, where she spent two weeks working with Professor Paul Tackley to model mantle convection in Io’s mantle. Professor Adam Showman is Catherine's advisor.

Tony Nottke is the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for Spring 2013. Tony earned the award for his work as a GTA for Professor Hal Larson's PTYS 170A1 course. He is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemistry, with a minor in Planetary Sciences.

LPL graduate student Melissa Dykhuis and husband Nathan welcomed the safe arrival of Matthew James Dykhuis on July 27. Matthew was born at 6:56 a.m. and weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz, 21 inches. Matthew has already attended several LPL events and is looking forward to his first Bratfest.

Catherine Elder has been announced as the recipient of the 2013 Shandel Travel Scholarship. Catherine plans to use the funds for summer travel to Zurich, Switzerland. While there, she will collaborate with Professor Paul Tackley (ETH Zurich) on studies of Io.

Tune in to the LPL Fall Newsletter for a report on Catherine's summer travel and research accomplishments!

Congratulations to Fan Guo and Kathryn Volk, each named as a recipient of the 2013 Gerard P. Kuiper Award.

Congratulations to LPL's 2013 Galileo Circle Scholarship recipients: Corwin Atwood-Stone, Sky Beard, Davin Flateau, Sarah Morrison, Tom Schad, Peng Sun, and Michelle Thompson. Galileo Circle Scholarships are awarded to the University of Arizona's finest science students and represent the tremendous breadth of research interests in the College of Science. 

Congratulations to PTYS graduate student Catherine Elder who was awarded a 2013 Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) Career Development Award in February.

The Department of Planetary Sciences/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory was pleased to name the following students as recipients of the 2013 College of ScienceGraduate Student Awards:

Outstanding Scholarship: Kathryn Volk

Outstanding Service and Outreach: Meghan Cassidy and Rob Zellem

Outstanding Teaching: Rob Zellem

Congratulations, Ali Bramson! Ali has been named the recipient of a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which comes with three years of funding and tuition support.

Ali is a first-year student working with Shane Byrne. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (B.S. in Physics and Astronomy).