Dathon Golish is the recipient of the LPL Staff Excellence Award for 2025 in he category of Science/Engineering Staff.

Since joining LPL in 2013, Dathon Golish has been an indispensable member of multiple high-profile planetary science mission projects.

Dathon is the Mission Instrument and Observation Scientist for OSIRIS-APEX. His leadership with observation planning and calibration and development of detailed observation plans has been essential to the success of OSIRIS-APEX concept of operations development. Dathon is also the Systems and Integration & Test Lead for the SeisLEMS payload development on Artemis III’s Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS). He has stepped up to fill key gaps in system design, performance and environmental testing, and validation and his expertise has been instrumental in keeping the program on track, ensuring that this complex spaceflight instrument meets mission requirements while strengthening LPL's capacity to build cutting-edge planetary seismic instrumentation.

Dathon embodies the spirit of mentorship and professional development, guiding numerous undergraduate students in spaceflight hardware development, contributing to both LPL’s research excellence and the growth of the next generation of planetary scientists and engineers. His role as Deputy PI of CatSat, a student-led CubeSat mission, is just one example of how he has fostered hands-on learning opportunities.

This staff award recognizes Dathon for his leadership in spaceflight instrumentation, his technical expertise, deep institutional knowledge, and ability to work seamlessly across engineering and science teams that make it possible for LPL to execute complex, multi-year spaceflight missions. Moreover, we thank Dathon for stepping into additional roles when projects are short-staffed, for mentoring early-career scientists, and for developing methods that enhance mission capabilities.