Congratulations to the OSIRIS-REx project, named Arizonan of the Year by the Arizona Republic newspaper (Phoenix). Take a moment to read about Arizona's appreciation for "the glittering constellation of scientists, engineers and others who made this happen."
It's been another busy semester for LPL'ers who reach out to share their work at local schools and community events, big and small. The spring outreach season opened in January with the extremely popular Connect2Stem event in Phoenix, on January 28. The month of March began with LPL students and staff talking with approximately 650 visitors to Science City at the Tucson Festival of Books and wrapped up with presentations about impact cratering and the scale of solar system objects at the Southern Arizona Research Science and Engineering Foundation (SARSEF) Future Innovators Night, held during their roughly week-long science fair for K-12 students. LPL hosted its annual visit from a group of Norwegian high school students and counselors. Students from Tucson's La Cima Middle School spent a "career shadow" day at LPL that featured a lecture about meteorites from Postdoctoral Research Associate Prajkta Mane, a tour of the new Transmission Electron Microscope, and the opportunity to talk with three PTYS graduate students to learn about graduate school and life as a graduate student. Other opportunites for outreach included talks and demonstrations at local schools. Space Drafts, Tucson's flavor of Astronomy on Tap, featured four LPL speakers for the 2016/2017 season (Bapst, Keane, Sutton, and Volk). Graduate student outreach coordinators Sarah Morrison and Shane Stone estimate that LPL staff and students met approximately 3,151 people during spring 2017 events.
 The LPL table at Connect2Stem featured globes of Earth, the moon, Venus, Mars, Europa, and Pluto. Outreach volunteers discussed the different scales of these planetary bodies and Senior Research Specialist Dolores Hill conducted demonstrations of the OSIRIS-REx TAGSAM. |
 At Connect2Stem, LPL graduate student Sarah Morrison was interviewed by a meteorologist from a Phoenix news channel. |
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Norwegian high school students spent the day with LPL research groups. |
Four long-time staff members transition into retirement
Bradford Castalia, a Principal Applications Systems Analyst/Developer with PIRL/HiRISE retired from LPL at the end of September 2012. Brad started at LPL in 1984.
Linda Hickcox, Senior Business Manager for HiRISE, retired on September 28, and promptly returned to a part-time version of her position on October 1. Linda began her career at LPL in 1987 as a Secretary II for PIRL.
Marianne Hamilton, who had been with LPL since 1980, returned to work part-time after her formal retirement in 2010. This past May, Marianne moved into a new position as an administrative assistant with the UA Tree Ring Laboratory.
Donita Vanture started at LPL in 1997 and supported staff for the Lunine and Jokipii groups, as well as supporting the Theoretical Astrophysics Colloquium. Donita retired from the UA in July 2012.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank Brad, Linda, Marianne, and Donita for their contributions and to with them each the best as they pursue new opportunities and interests.
LPL partnered with the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) and Flandrau Science Center to help Tucsonans view the June 5 transit of Venus. Hundreds of Tucsonans donned their transit glasses to enjoy the viewing party. Viewing and lectures took place from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. There were telescopes on the mall, and lots of eclipse glasses were available. Visitors could watch various live feeds of the transit. PSI Senior Education Specialist (and retired LPL faculty member) Larry Lebofsky lectured about the transit.
On July 28, LPL hosted Summer Science Saturday, a day-long celebration of science in anticipation of the landing of the MSL Curiosity Rover. The event was a great success, with over 700 Tucsonans visiting LPL to learn about Mars, spectroscopy (PTYS graduate student Rob Zellem), and meteorites (LPL Meteorite Guru Dolores Hill). Mike Farmer displayed his martian meteorites. The UA Department of Entomology and Insect Science brought bugs! Dr. Denise Meeks (Pima Community College NW) helped young people make planispheres. Sanlyn Buxner and Rob Bovill (Planetary Science Institute) compared and contrasted the Earth and Mars. Tucson's Titan Missile Museum brought a Newton's cradle, which demonstrates Newton's laws of motion. Professor Cecile McKee (UA Dept. of Linguistics) and her volunteers made spectrograms of visitor names. OSIRIS-REx was represented by Oliver Beres and Ross Dubois; they were a hit with their Comet Ice Cream (whole milk, salt, and comet additives)! The Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona (GSSA) brought a renewable energy system that uses solar and micro hydro power, designed and built by the GSSA and the Tucson Solar Guild at Power Up camp---what a hit on a hot July day! Volunteers from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory spent the day making comets, using slinkys to demonstrate optical illusions, and helping the youngest guests make Play-Doh planets. One of the most popular stops was the Robotics activity (hosted by Caryl Jones and her volunteers from the Catalina Foothills Community Schools). David Acklam from the Kuiper Circle Outreach Committee told visitors all about LPL, and Kellee Hanson was there to represent the College of Sciences. There were lectures by Dr. Veronica Bray ("The dramatic formation of Gale crater: What happens when an asteroid hits a planet?"), Assistant Professor Shane Byrne ("Wet clay on ancient Mars"), and Professor Alfred McEwen ("HiRISE imaging of Mars Landing sites, landers, and rovers," presented by Shane Byrne). And Dr. Bruce Bayly and his Physics Factory crew were, as always, super fun, educational, and engaging.
We're already planning for next year!
All photos courtesy of James Keane.
LPL welcomed three new graduate students for the 2012/2013 academic year:
Ali Bramson: graduate of the University of Wisconsin , B.S. in Physics and Astronomy, working with Shane Byrne
Davin Flateau: B.S. in Physics from the University of Cincinnati, working with Daniel Apai
Jess Vriesema: M.S. in Physics from the University of Arizona and B.S. in Physics from Calvin College, working with Tamara Rogers
Welcome Ali, Davin, and Jess!
Fan Guo defended his dissertation titled "Effects of Turbulent Magnetic Fields on the Transport and Acceleration of Energetic Charged Particles: Numerical Simulations with Applications to Heliospheric Physics.” Joe Giacalone was Fan's dissertation advisor. Fan will continue as a Research Associate with Joe Giacalone until graduation in December. He will then begin a postdoctoral position with the University of Alabama, working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Priyanka Sharma defended her dissertation titled "Investigations of Titan’s Topography and Surface Roughness" on June 1. Shane Byrne was Priyanka's dissertation advisor. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech.
Congratulations to Fan and Priyanka!
The media is buzzing about Planetary Resources and its recently announced plan to mine asteroids. LPL is proud to claim three alumni and an emeritus professor on the Planetary Resources team:
Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer, graduated from the University of Arizona in 1997 with a degree in Aerospace Engineering; he completed his M.S. from the same program in 2000. Chris is an alumnus of Arizona Space Grant and the UA chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (both headquartered at LPL); Chris was also JPL Flight Controller for the Phoenix mission;
Advisors Thomas D. Jones and Mark V. Sykes are both LPL alums. Tom earned his Ph.D. from LPL in 1988 (with John Lewis) and Mark earned his in 1986 (with Don Hunten).
PTYS/LPL Professor Emeritus John Lewis is also a member of the team.
From the Arizona Daily Star, April 25, 2012: Bold plan goes for asteroid gold
Space miners seek riches in nearby asteroids
Is it really cheaper to mine platinum from an asteroid?
In Pursuit of Riches, and Travelers' Supplies, in the Asteroid Belt
The OSIRIS-REx mission, selected as the third NASA New Frontiers mission in May 2011, launched its hub website. Visit http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu.
This site provides basic information about the mission and links to resources within NASA, to partners and to other sites of interest. This site is the hub for our web presence on various platforms and outlets. The mission is also on Twitter (@OSIRISRex) and Facebook (Osiris Rex). Mission presence will evolve over the 14-year mission so plan to continue to explore the website and social media.
Professor Timothy D. Swindle has been named the new Director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Head of the Department of Planetary Sciences, replacing the late Michael J. Drake, who served in that role for 17 years.
Tim has been on the faculty at LPL since 1986, arriving shortly after receiving his Ph.D. in Physics from Washington University in St. Louis. While at LPL, he has won a Provost's General Education Teaching Award and a College of Science Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2008, he became the first Assistant Director of LPL, and served as Acting Department Head and Director in early 2010 and again in late 2011.
His research is on extraterrestrials materials like meteorites and lunar samples, and he has had a noble gas mass spectrometry laboratory on campus since 1990. He is a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society, and has served the Society as a member of the Council, the Treasurer, and a member (and later chair) of both the Awards Committee and Endowment Committee. As anyone who has gotten him started on Antarctic stories knows, he has served as a member of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites field party on the Polar Plateau four times, as many times as any volunteer in the program.
When not at work, he can often be found riding his bicycle around Tucson (usually avoiding getting hit by cars) or going to baseball games.
