Note from Tim Swindle, Outgoing Head and Director

Note from Tim Swindle, Outgoing Head and Director

It's time for a change. After about a decade leading this wonderful organization, I've just retired, and Mark Marley has taken over as Director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Head of the Department of Planetary Sciences. It's been a great decade for me, and I'm satisfied with where LPL is in many ways (although there are always things that a person wishes they'd done better), but, again, it's time for a change, and I'm thrilled that it's Mark. He's an LPL alum (the first one to become Director), an accomplished scientist, and he's got lots of good ideas for ways to move LPL forward. In the last 10 years, LPL has been able to hire some great scientists and teachers, has produced some outstanding graduates, and this brilliant bunch has produced more than enough great ideas and projects to keep this newsletter full. In fact, LPL has been so productive that we've started a monthly newsletter full of press releases about our science.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter, I hope you stay in touch with LPL, and I want to thank all the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of LPL who have made this, as my predecessor Mike Drake once told me, "the best job on campus."

Timothy D. Swindle, Ph.D.