by Claire Cook

The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Conference (LPLC) marks the start of the academic year for the LPL community and other planetary scientists in the Tucson area. This year, LPLC was hosted in a hybrid format on August 19. Over 70 participants gathered at the Kuiper Building and on Zoom to watch 30 presentations given by faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students from LPL and other departments. Among the five invited speakers was Galen Bergsten, winner of the “Best Grad Student Presentation” in 2021. Galen gave a great talk titled There’s No Place Like Home: Exoplanets and Accessibility in a Local Context, which addressed both exoplanet science and how to make the science more inclusive and accessible. The “Best Grad Student Presentation” award went to Sam Myers, with a talk on near-Earth asteroids titled Comparing NEATM-like Models to IRTF and NEOWISE Data to Constrain Model Results. Sam will be invited to present at LPLC in 2023.

In addition to the invited speakers, 25 others gave presentations about their current or upcoming research. LPLC concluded with a keynote from OSIRIS-APEX Deputy Principal Investigator Dr. Michael Nolan on The OSIRIS-APEX Mission. A catered reception followed the conference, helping to keep the discussions going and bringing together the local planetary science community. The LPLC Organizing Committee, composed solely of LPL graduate students, is proud of this year's excellent turnout, engagement, and participation. We wish to thank the Tucson planetary science community for your continued support and are looking forward to another successful conference next fall!