On August 19, 2011, David and Kelley Choi became the proud parents of beautiful baby girl Hannah Jiyeon Choi. Hannah arrived at a healthy 7 lbs and 9 oz, and 19 3/4 inches.
Not long after Hannah's birth, David and Kelley relocated to Maryland so that David could begin his post-doctoral fellowship at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Hannah has grown quite a bit from her newborn portrait (shown here)---she is even cuter now, if that's possible.
Best wishes to David, Kelley, and Hannah!
Terry Hurford (LPL Class of 1998) and his wife recently gave birth to their second child, Terry A. Hurford III. They are currently living in the Baltimore/DC area, having moved there after grad school to work at Goddard Space Flight Center. Terry has continued his work dealing with tidal stress on icy satellites by looking at how tidal stress can affect the Tiger Stripes on Enceladus, possibly causing daily movements along them and controlling volatile escape as 
observed by Cassini. He is also a part of the Cassini CIRS team, helping with OPS and science planning for icy satellite targets. Observations he helped plan and execute found thermal anomalies on Mimas (the Pacman) and Tethys.
In addition to science and mission work, Terry is currently running the Outer Planets Research Program while on a detail to NQ. During his tenure as Discipline Scientist for OPRP, he has successfully maintained a diverse and dynamic program while increasing its budget by more than 50%.
Congratulations to the Hurford family!
Anna H. Spitz earned her Ph.D. from Geosciences/LPL in 1991, working with Bill Boynton. The title of her dissertation is “Trace element analysis of ureilite meteorites and implications for their petrogenesis.”
Since completing her Ph.D. in 1991, Anna Spitz has not analyzed one ureilite. Although she never really left planetary science all together---teaching astronomy and writing about astronomical topics over the last twenty years---her interests brought her back full-time to planetary science starting in 2010---this time as a translator of science rather than as a researcher.
As she finished her ureilite research in the early 1990s, Spitz returned to business pursuits in the private sector and became one of the founders of a Tucson-based environmental consulting company and spent the next ten years full-time in the environmental field doing research, business, education and community work. After selling her share of Zenitech Corporation in 1991, she joined a firm specializing in occupational safety and health and then became the Coordinator of the Tucson/Pima County Household Hazardous Waste Program. In 1994 Ann Marie Wolf and she began the Sonora Environmental Research Institute (SERI), where they undertook research (leading to a patent for a cleanser made of recycled glass), education and community outreach. SERI is now well-known for its innovative and community-defined environmental programs in southern Arizona. Spitz remains on the SERI board.
In 2000, Spitz returned to the University of Arizona at Steward Observatory. Working in the Director’s office she participated in management of various projects. As in the private sector, starting new ventures and incorporating research into the public sphere continued to engage Spitz and over the next ten years, she helped launch and establish the Center for Astrobiology, Arizona Water Institute and the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter programs at the University of Arizona.
In 2010, Spitz joined the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission team led by Principal Investigator (PI), Michael Drake and Deputy PI (DPI), Dante Lauretta as Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) lead. This is a wonderful fit and she is very happy for the opportunity to be the E/PO Lead for this NASA New Frontiers Mission working with the outstanding team now led by Lauretta with DPI Ed Beshore. “This opportunity allows me to engage in the science, which so captivated me as a student at LPL, while indulging my passion for translating science to the general public and students. It’s great to be back at LPL working with new colleagues and former-now-current colleagues.”
Visiting student/researcher Beary Xiao recently returned to his home in China after spending two years at LPL. Beary is back in Wuhan, writing: "It is a great pleasure to come back and see the old friends here, but I also miss you guys and the blue and clean sky in Tucson." Beary married fiancee Lina on September 21, shortly after arriving home in China. Lina is a human resource manager for a private company in China. Beary will graduate from Wuhan University in June 2013 and hopes to earn a post-doctoral position at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), where he will continue his work on planetary geology with an emphasis on surface evolution. Our best wishes to Beary and Lina!
Beary and Lina in Guilin
Recent PTYS/LPL graduate Kathryn Gardner-Vandy and husband Justin Vandy welcomed the arrival of beautiful baby Cora Susanne Vandy on May 26, 2012. Cora weighed in at 7 lb. 8 oz. and measured 19.5". She just celebrated her 5-month birthday! Kathryn will soon be starting a postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution.
Congratulations and best wishes to Kathryn and Justin, and to Cora's big brother Jace!
LPL alumna Dr. Barbara Cohen has been named the recipient of the 2018 Angioletta Coradini Mid-Career Award from NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. She is the second recipient of the award (it was awarded posthumously to Dr. Coradini in 2017). Dr. Cohen, now at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, has worked on the geochronology and geochemistry of materials from the Moon, Mars and asteroids. She graduated from LPL in 2000.
LPL alumnus Tom Jones (1988) was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame at Kennedy Space Center on April 21. Tom flew on four space shuttle missions; he led three spacewalks and spent fifty-three days working and living in space. He has remained engaged in promoting asteroid science. Congratulations, Tom!
The 49th meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society (“DPS” for short) had a strong LPL flavor to it, as it often does. The meeting, October 15-20, was organized by LPL alum (and member of the LPL External Advisory Board) Jani Radebaugh (2005) in Provo, Utah, where she is an Associate Professor of Geological Sciences at Brigham Young University. LPL alumni Sarah Hörst (2011) and Matt Tiscareno (2004) gave plenary talks, and many LPL faculty, staff, students, and alumni presented posters and oral presentations. LPL alum Jamie Molaro (2015) again organized an Art of Planetary Science exhibition for the conference, modeled after the successful version that she developed as a grad student in Tucson, and LPL sponsored the show. Finally, the DPS leadership continues to have a strong LPL influence, with eight LPL alumni and an LPL faculty member in leadership roles, along with several others with LPL ties (such as former students from other UA departments and postdocs). And next year’s meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee is being organized by alum Josh Emery (2002) and UA Geosciences alum Devon Burr (2003).
Congratulations to LPL alumnus Fred Ciesla (2003), who was recently promoted from Associate Professor to Professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago.
