PTYS/LPL Postdocs

Drake 112
Ronald Ballouz
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Lunar Studies, Orbital Dynamics, Planetary Astronomy, Planetary Geophysics, Small Bodies, Theoretical Astrophysics
Computational Physics, Asteroids, Planetary Rings, Granular Physics
Advisor(s): Dante Lauretta
Ron Ballouz is an astrophysicist at the Lunar and Planetary Lab, University of Arizona. His main research areas of interest are asteroid collisional evolution, planetary surface processes, and planetary defense. His current work combines theory, computer simulations, and observational data to better understand the history of asteroids and moons that are the targets of sample return missions: OSIRIS-REx, Hayabusa2, and the future JAXA Phobos mission, MMX.
He received his B.S. in Astronomy & Astrophysics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, and his PhD at Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park. For his PhD dissertation, he worked with Professor Derek C. Richardson on supercomputer simulations of collisional processes in the Solar System. Following his PhD, he worked at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS/JAXA) in Sagamihara, Japan. At ISAS, he led a study that showed that some regions of the Phobos surface are rapidly refreshed due to it’s eccentric orbit.
He was born in Davao City, Philippines and grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. He currently resides in Tucson, Arizona with his wife Kellie, their daughter Rosie, and their two French Bulldogs.
Complete publications list available from: NASA ADS Author search: Ronald Ballouz
Refereed publications (NASA ADS): Calendar Years 2009 through July 2020
Bottke, W. F., Vokrouhlický, D., Ballouz, R.-L., Barnouin, O. S., Connolly, H. C., Elder, C., Marchi, S., McCoy, T. J., Michel, P., Nolan, M. C., Rizk, B., Scheeres, D. J., Schwartz, S. R., Walsh, K. J., Lauretta, D. S. Interpreting the Cratering Histories of Bennu, Ryugu, and Other Spacecraft-explored Asteroids 2020AJ....160...14B
Molaro, J. L., Walsh, K. J., Jawin, E. R., Ballouz, R.-L., Bennett, C. A., DellaGiustina, D. N., Golish, D. R., Drouet d'Aubigny, C., Rizk, B., Schwartz, S. R., Hanna, R. D., Martel, S. J., Pajola, M., Campins, H., Ryan, A. J., Bottke, W. F., Lauretta, D. S. In situ evidence of thermally induced rock breakdown widespread on Bennu's surface 2020NatCo..11.2913M
Michel, P., Ballouz, R.-L., Barnouin, O. S., Jutzi, M., Walsh, K. J., May, B. H., Manzoni, C., Richardson, D. C., Schwartz, S. R., Sugita, S., Watanabe, S., Miyamoto, H., Hirabayashi, M., Bottke, W. F., Connolly, H. C., Yoshikawa, M., Lauretta, D. S. Collisional formation of top-shaped asteroids and implications for the origins of Ryugu and Bennu 2020NatCo..11.2655M
Scheeres, D. J., McMahon, J. W., Brack, D. N., French, A. S., Chesley, S. R., Farnocchia, D., Vokrouhlický, D., Ballouz, R.-L., Emery, J. P., Rozitis, B., Nolan, M. C., Hergenrother, C. W., Lauretta, D. S. Particle Ejection Contributions to the Rotational Acceleration and Orbit Evolution of Asteroid (101955) Bennu 2020JGRE..12506284S
Thuillet, F., Michel, P., Tachibana, S., Ballouz, R.-L., Schwartz, S. R. Numerical modelling of medium-speed impacts on a granular surface in a low-gravity environment application to Hayabusa2 sampling mechanism 2020MNRAS.491..153T
Lauretta, D. S., Hergenrother, C. W., Chesley, S. R., Leonard, J. M., Pelgrift, J. Y., Adam, C. D., Al Asad, M., Antreasian, P. G., Ballouz, R.-L., Becker, K. J., Bennett, C. A., Bos, B. J., Bottke, W. F., Brozović, M., Campins, H., Connolly, H. C., Daly, M. G., Davis, A. B., de León, J., DellaGiustina, D. N., Drouet d’Aubigny, C. Y., Dworkin, J. P., Emery, J. P., Farnocchia, D., Glavin, D. P., Golish, D. R., Hartzell, C. M., Jacobson, R. A., Jawin, E. R., Jenniskens, P., Kidd, J. N., Lessac-Chenen, E. J., Li, J.-Y., Libourel, G., Licandro, J., Liounis, A. J., Maleszewski, C. K., Manzoni, C., May, B., McCarthy, L. K., McMahon, J. W., Michel, P., Molaro, J. L., Moreau, M. C., Nelson, D. S., Owen, W. M., Rizk, B., Roper, H. L., Rozitis, B., Sahr, E. M., Scheeres, D. J., Seabrook, J. A., Selznick, S. H., Takahashi, Y., Thuillet, F., Tricarico, P., Vokrouhlický, D., Wolner, C. W. V. Episodes of particle ejection from the surface of the active asteroid (101955) Bennu 2019Sci...366.3544L
Çelik, O., Baresi, N., Ballouz, R.-L., Ogawa, K., Wada, K., Kawakatsu, Y. Ballistic deployment from quasi-satellite orbits around Phobos under realistic dynamical and surface environment constraints 2019P&SS..17804693C
Ballouz, R.-L., Baresi, N., Crites, S.T., Kawakatsu, Y., and Fujimoto, M., 2019. Surfacerefreshing of Martian Moon Phobos by orbital eccentricity-driven grain motion 2019NatGe..12..229B
Ballouz, R.-L., Walsh, K. J., Richardson, D. C., Michel, P. Using a geometrical algorithm to provide N-body initial conditions for the gravitational phase of asteroid family formation 2019MNRAS.485..697B
Sugita, S., Honda, R., Morota, T., Kameda, S., Sawada, H., Tatsumi, E., Yamada, M., Honda, C., Yokota, Y., Kouyama, T., Sakatani, N., Ogawa, K., Suzuki, H., Okada, T., Namiki, N., Tanaka, S., Iijima, Y., Yoshioka, K., Hayakawa, M., Cho, Y., Matsuoka, M., Hirata, N., Hirata, N., Miyamoto, H., Domingue, D., Hirabayashi, M., Nakamura, T., Hiroi, T., Michikami, T., Michel, P., Ballouz, R.-L., Barnouin, O. S., Ernst, C. M., Schröder, S. E., Kikuchi, H., Hemmi, R., Komatsu, G., Fukuhara, T., Taguchi, M., Arai, T., Senshu, H., Demura, H., Ogawa, Y., Shimaki, Y., Sekiguchi, T., Müller, T. G., Hagermann, A., Mizuno, T., Noda, H., Matsumoto, K., Yamada, R., Ishihara, Y., Ikeda, H., Araki, H., Yamamoto, K., Abe, S., Yoshida, F., Higuchi, A., Sasaki, S., Oshigami, S., Tsuruta, S., Asari, K., Tazawa, S., Shizugami, M., Kimura, J., Otsubo, T., Yabuta, H., Hasegawa, S., Ishiguro, M., Tachibana, S., Palmer, E., Gaskell, R., Le Corre, L., Jaumann, R., Otto, K., Schmitz, N., Abell, P. A., Barucci, M. A., Zolensky, M. E., Vilas, F., Thuillet, F., Sugimoto, C., Takaki, N., Suzuki, Y., Kamiyoshihara, H., Okada, M., Nagata, K., Fujimoto, M., Yoshikawa, M., Yamamoto, Y., Shirai, K., Noguchi, R., Ogawa, N., Terui, F., Kikuchi, S., Yamaguchi, T., Oki, Y., Takao, Y., Takeuchi, H., Ono, G., Mimasu, Y., Yoshikawa, K., Takahashi, T., Takei, Y., Fujii, A., Hirose, C., Nakazawa, S., Hosoda, S., Mori, O., Shimada, T., Soldini, S., Iwata, T., Abe, M., Yano, H., Tsukizaki, R., Ozaki, M., Nishiyama, K., Saiki, T., Watanabe, S., Tsuda, Y. The geomorphology, color, and thermal properties of Ryugu: Implications for parent-body processes 2019Sci...364..252S
Walsh, K. J., Jawin, E. R., Ballouz, R.-L., Barnouin, O. S., Bierhaus, E. B., Connolly, H. C., Molaro, J. L., McCoy, T. J., Delbo', M., Hartzell, C. M., Pajola, M., Schwartz, S. R., Trang, D., Asphaug, E., Becker, K. J., Beddingfield, C. B., Bennett, C. A., Bottke, W. F., Burke, K. N., Clark, B. C., Daly, M. G., Dellagiustina, D. N., Dworkin, J. P., Elder, C. M., Golish, D. R., Hildebrand, A. R., Malhotra, R., Marshall, J., Michel, P., Nolan, M. C., Perry, M. E., Rizk, B., Ryan, A., Sandford, S. A., Scheeres, D. J., Susorney, H. C. M., Thuillet, F., Lauretta, D. S., Osiris-Rex Team Publisher Correction: Craters, boulders and regolith of (101955) Bennu indicative of an old and dynamic surface 2019NatGe..12..399W
Barnouin, O. S., Daly, M. G., Palmer, E. E., Gaskell, R. W., Weirich, J. R., Johnson, C. L., Al Asad, M. M., Roberts, J. H., Perry, M. E., Susorney, H. C. M., Daly, R. T., Bierhaus, E. B., Seabrook, J. A., Espiritu, R. C., Nair, A. H., Nguyen, L., Neumann, G. A., Ernst, C. M., Boynton, W. V., Nolan, M. C., Adam, C. D., Moreau, M. C., Rizk, B., Drouet D'Aubigny, C. Y., Jawin, E. R., Walsh, K. J., Michel, P., Schwartz, S. R., Ballouz, R.-L., Mazarico, E. M., Scheeres, D. J., McMahon, J. W., Bottke, W. F., Sugita, S., Hirata, N., Hirata, N., Watanabe, S.-I., Burke, K. N., Dellagiustina, D. N., Bennett, C. A., Lauretta, D. S., Osiris-Rex Team Shape of (101955) Bennu indicative of a rubble pile with internal stiffness 2019NatGe..12..247B
Walsh, K. J., Jawin, E. R., Ballouz, R.-L., Barnouin, O. S., Bierhaus, E. B., Connolly, H. C., Molaro, J. L., McCoy, T. J., Delbo', M., Hartzell, C. M., Pajola, M., Schwartz, S. R., Trang, D., Asphaug, E., Becker, K. J., Beddingfield, C. B., Bennett, C. A., Bottke, W. F., Burke, K. N., Clark, B. C., Daly, M. G., Dellagiustina, D. N., Dworkin, J. P., Elder, C. M., Golish, D. R., Hildebrand, A. R., Malhotra, R., Marshall, J., Michel, P., Nolan, M. C., Perry, M. E., Rizk, B., Ryan, A., Sandford, S. A., Scheeres, D. J., Susorney, H. C. M., Thuillet, F., Lauretta, D. S., Osiris-Rex Team Craters, boulders and regolith of (101955) Bennu indicative of an old and dynamic surface 2019NatGe..12..242W
Ballouz, R.-L., Baresi, N., Crites, S. T., Kawakatsu, Y., Fujimoto, M. Surface refreshing of Martian moon Phobos by orbital eccentricity-driven grain motion 2019NatGe..12..229B
Scheeres, D. J., McMahon, J. W., French, A. S., Brack, D. N., Chesley, S. R., Farnocchia, D., Takahashi, Y., Leonard, J. M., Geeraert, J., Page, B., Antreasian, P., Getzandanner, K., Rowlands, D., Mazarico, E. M., Small, J., Highsmith, D. E., Moreau, M., Emery, J. P., Rozitis, B., Hirabayashi, M., Sánchez, P., van Wal, S., Tricarico, P., Ballouz, R.-L., Johnson, C. L., Al Asad, M. M., Susorney, H. C. M., Barnouin, O. S., Daly, M. G., Seabrook, J. A., Gaskell, R. W., Palmer, E. E., Weirich, J. R., Walsh, K. J., Jawin, E. R., Bierhaus, E. B., Michel, P., Bottke, W. F., Nolan, M. C., Connolly, H. C., Lauretta, D. S., Osiris-Rex Team The dynamic geophysical environment of (101955) Bennu based on OSIRIS-REx measurements 2019NatAs...3..352S
Dellagiustina, D. N., Emery, J. P., Golish, D. R., Rozitis, B., Bennett, C. A., Burke, K. N., Ballouz, R.-L., Becker, K. J., Christensen, P. R., Drouet D'Aubigny, C. Y., Hamilton, V. E., Reuter, D. C., Rizk, B., Simon, A. A., Asphaug, E., Bandfield, J. L., Barnouin, O. S., Barucci, M. A., Bierhaus, E. B., Binzel, R. P., Bottke, W. F., Bowles, N. E., Campins, H., Clark, B. C., Clark, B. E., Connolly, H. C., Daly, M. G., Leon, J. D., Delbo', M., Deshapriya, J. D. P., Elder, C. M., Fornasier, S., Hergenrother, C. W., Howell, E. S., Jawin, E. R., Kaplan, H. H., Kareta, T. R., Le Corre, L., Li, J.-Y., Licandro, J., Lim, L. F., Michel, P., Molaro, J., Nolan, M. C., Pajola, M., Popescu, M., Garcia, J. L. R., Ryan, A., Schwartz, S. R., Shultz, N., Siegler, M. A., Smith, P. H., Tatsumi, E., Thomas, C. A., Walsh, K. J., Wolner, C. W. V., Zou, X.-D., Lauretta, D. S., Osiris-Rex Team Properties of rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu from OSIRIS-REx imaging and thermal analysis 2019NatAs...3..341D
Maurel, C., Michel, P., Biele, J., Ballouz, R.-L., Thuillet, F. Numerical simulations of the contact between the lander MASCOT and a regolith-covered surface 2018AdSpR..62.2099M
Lu, Y., Ballouz, R.-L., Richardson, D. C. Exploring Shear-free Ringlet Formation with Direct Simulations of Saturn's B Rings 2018AJ....156..129L
Thuillet, F., Michel, P., Maurel, C., Ballouz, R.-L., Zhang, Y., Richardson, D. C., Biele, J., Tatsumi, E., Sugita, S. Numerical modeling of lander interaction with a low-gravity asteroid regolith surface. Application to MASCOT on board Hayabusa2 2018A&A...615A..41T
Zhang, Y., Richardson, D. C., Barnouin, O. S., Michel, P., Schwartz, S. R., Ballouz, R.-L. Rotational Failure of Rubble-pile Bodies: Influences of Shear and Cohesive Strengths 2018ApJ...857...15Z
Lauretta, D. S., Balram-Knutson, S. S., Beshore, E., Boynton, W. V., Drouet d'Aubigny, C., DellaGiustina, D. N., Enos, H. L., Golish, D. R., Hergenrother, C. W., Howell, E. S., Bennett, C. A., Morton, E. T., Nolan, M. C., Rizk, B., Roper, H. L., Bartels, A. E., Bos, B. J., Dworkin, J. P., Highsmith, D. E., Lorenz, D. A., Lim, L. F., Mink, R., Moreau, M. C., Nuth, J. A., Reuter, D. C., Simon, A. A., Bierhaus, E. B., Bryan, B. H., Ballouz, R., Barnouin, O. S., Binzel, R. P., Bottke, W. F., Hamilton, V. E., Walsh, K. J., Chesley, S. R., Christensen, P. R., Clark, B. E., Connolly, H. C., Crombie, M. K., Daly, M. G., Emery, J. P., McCoy, T. J., McMahon, J. W., Scheeres, D. J., Messenger, S., Nakamura-Messenger, K., Righter, K., Sandford, S. A. OSIRIS-REx: Sample Return from Asteroid (101955) Bennu 2017SSRv..212..925L
Zhang, Y., Richardson, D. C., Barnouin, O. S., Maurel, C., Michel, P., Schwartz, S. R., Ballouz, R.-L., Benner, L. A. M., Naidu, S. P., Li, J. Creep stability of the proposed AIDA mission target 65803 Didymos: I. Discrete cohesionless granular physics model 2017Icar..294...98Z
Ballouz, R. Numerical Simulations of Granular Physics in the Solar System 2017PhDT........43B
Ballouz, R.-L., Richardson, D. C., Morishima, R. Numerical Simulations of Saturn’s B Ring: Granular Friction as a Mediator between Self-gravity Wakes and Viscous Overstability 2017AJ....153..146B
Maurel, C., Ballouz, R.-L., Richardson, D. C., Michel, P., Schwartz, S. R. Numerical simulations of oscillation-driven regolith motion: Brazil-nut effect 2017MNRAS.464.2866M
Perera, V., Jackson, A.P., Asphaug, E., and Ballouz, R.-L., 2016. The spherical Brazil Nut Effect and its significance to asteroids. Icarus, 278, 194.
Ballouz, R-L., Richardson, D.C., Michel, P., and Schwartz, S.R., 2015. Numerical simulations of collisional disruption of rotating gravitational aggregates: Dependence on material properties. Planetary & Space Science, 107, 29.
Yu, Y., Richardson, D.C., Michel, P., Schwartz, S.R., and Ballouz, R.-L., 2015. Numerical predictions of surface effects during the 2029 close approach of Asteroid 99942 Apophis. Icarus, 242, 82.
Matsumura, S., Richardson, D.C, Michel, P., Schwartz, S.R., and Ballouz, R.-L., 2014. The Brazil nut effect and its application to asteroids. 2014. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 443, 3368.
Ballouz, R-L., Richardson, D.C., Michel, P., and Schwartz, S.R., 2014. Rotation-dependent Catastrophic Disruption of Gravitational Aggregates. Astrophysical Journal, 789, 158.
Sion, E.M., Linell, A.P., Godon, P., and Ballouz, R.-L., 2011. The Hot Components of Am CVn Helium Cataclysmics. The Astrophysical Journal, 741, 63.
Mizusawa, T., Merritt, J., Ballouz, R.-L., et al., 2010. Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Seven Nova-Like Variables. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 122, 299.
Zellem, R., Hollon, N., Ballouz, R.-L., et al., 2009. Hubble Space Telescope STIS Spectroscopy of the Peculiar Nova-Like Variables BK Lyn, V751 Cygni, and V380 Oph. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 121, 942.
Ballouz, R.-L., and Sion, E.M. On the Accretion Rates of SW Sextantis Nova-like Variables. 2009. The Astrophysical Journal, 697, 1717-1724.
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