Congratulations to Juan M. Lora, recipient of the 2014 Gerard P. Kuiper Memorial Award.

Dr. Christopher Hamilton joined LPL this spring as an Assistant Professor. Christopher is a planetary volcanologist with an interest in field-based analogs for geologic surface processes on terrestrial planets and satellites.

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, under the direction of Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, continues to make steady progress. On December 9, the public countdown clocks for the mission were turned on. On that day, the time until the start of the September 2016 launch window dropped to 999 days, and the countdown began.

This year, the Department of Planetary Sciences/Lunar and Planetary Laboratory was proud to recognize and award three graduate students for their efforts toward service and outreach, which includes attention to broader impacts and involvement in activities outside of academic responsibilities that benefit the department, university and the larger community:

LPL’s Ali Bramson won the award for Outstanding Teaching at the 7^th Annual College of Science Graduate Student Awards. Ali was recognized for her work in developing a year-long seminar course called “Entering Research (LASC 397A).” The course, which Ali taught this year, introduces undergraduates to all facets of the research endeavor.

Congratulations to PTYS undergraduate minor Cassandra Lejoly. For Spring 2014, Cassandra was named Outstanding Senior for the Department of Astronomy. Cassandra presented her research at the Astronomy Department's Graduating Astronomy Major Research Symposium on April 24. Her abstract is provided below. In the fall, Cassandra will be attending Northern Arizona University as a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.