Faculty News

Professors Daniel Apai and Dante Lauretta were elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.

Dante Lauretta is a Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences at LPL. He has been recognized as a AAAS Fellow for “distinguished contributions to the field of astrobiology, particularly for leadership and advancements through the OSIRIS-REx mission.” Professor Lauretta is the director of the University of Arizona’s Arizona Astrobiology Center, which focuses on astrobiological research on the origins, evolution and distribution of life in the universe.

Daniel Apai is a professor in both LPL and the Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory. He is being honored for his Professor Daniel Apai “distinguished contributions to the field of astrobiology and astrophysics, particularly for advancements in understanding of habitable exoplanets and planetary systems.” He is the principal investigator for the NASA-funded Alien Earths project that explores the potential of nearby planetary systems for supporting life. Apai also leads the Nautilus Space Telescope project, whose objective is to characterize 1,000 potentially Earth-like exoplanets to search for signatures of life.

The annual Fellows Forum will be held in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 21 in conjunction with the 150th anniversary celebration of the AAAS Fellows program.

Ilaria Pascucci

Professor Ilaria Pascucci is the recipient of the 2024 Leon and Pauline Blitzer Award for Excellence in Teaching of Physics and Related Sciences. The award recognizes outstanding teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

In 2022, Professor Pascucci was elected a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society, for her scientific contributions to understanding how planet-forming disks evolve and disperse. Professor Pascucci will present the Blitzer award lecture in the spring of 2024.

Dante Lauretta

Regents Professor Dante Lauretta was named the recipient of the 2023 Eugene Shoemaker Lecture from the American Geophysical Union. The award is presented annually and recognizes excellence in planetary exploration. This lecture honors the life and work of planetary scientist and geologist, Eugene Merle Shoemaker.

Dante Lauretta is Principal Investigator for OSIRIS-REx, which returned to Earth its sample of the asteroid Bennu on Sept. 24. He presented the award lecture at the December 2023 AGU meeting.

Joe Giacalone

Professor Joe Giacalone was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, in recognition of seminal contributions to our understanding of charged particle acceleration and transport throughout the interplanetary medium. The AGU Fellows program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions to Earth and Space science.

Professor Giacalone is a member of the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun team on the Parker Solar Probe.

Joe Giacalone walks across AGU stage.

Assistant Professor Jessica Barnes is the recipient of the 2024 Curie Award. Sponsored by the UArizona College of Science Galileo Circle, the Curie Award recognizes early-career scientists who are advancing science with innovative work and also adding to the diversity within the scientific community. Professor Barnes strives to understand the origin and evolution of volatiles in the inner Solar System utilizing a combination of nano and microanalytical techniques to study mineralogy, geochemistry, and petrological histories of a wide range of extraterrestrial materials.

In 2023, Dr. Barnes received the 2023 Nier Prize, awarded to young scientists for outstanding research in meteoritics. She was selected by NASA in 2019 to study the previously unopened Apollo sample 71036 and received a $1.5M gift in support of the sample analysis. Also that year, Dr. Barnes was named by Nature magazine as one of five young scientists who will shape the next 50 years of Moon research. In 2020, NASA named her to the Early Career Award program. In 2022, Dr. Barnes was selected as a Woman of Impact by the UArizona Office of Research, Innovation & Impact.

Three members of the LPL faculty were on teams selected for the Scialog Signatures of Life in the Universe Collaborative Innovation Awards.

Christopher Hamilton, Sukrit Ranjan, and Tyler Robinson each received $50,000 in direct costs to support their research.

The Scialog project is sponsored by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Kavli Foundation, and NASA. Scialog seeks to stimulate interdisciplinary conversation and community building around an important scientific theme such as the search for life beyond Earth.

Christopher Hamilton

Dr. Christopher Hamilton
Associate Professor
Rocky Roads: Flow Pathways and Chemical Evolution in Vesicular Lava and Pumice

Sukrit Ranjan

Dr. Sukrit Ranjan
Assistant Professor
Constraining the Abiotic Sulfur Cycle on Temperate Terrestrial Planets

Tyler Robinson

Dr. Tyler Robinson
Associate Professor
Irradiated Sea Spray Aerosol Generation and Analysis Under Early Earth Atmospheres

In April, the UArizona College of Science celebrated Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month with Dr. Renu Malhotra, a Regents Professor and Louise Foucar Marshall Science Research Professor in Planetary Sciences. The College of Science spoke with Dr. Malhotra, a native of India, to discuss her journey to the United States and the University of Arizona, her upbringing, and her favorite part about being a scientist. Read the interview here.

https://science.arizona.edu/news/asian-pacific-islander-desi-american-heritage-…

Dr. Matsuyama has been with LPL since 2011. His research is focused on understanding the formation and evolution of solar system planets and planetary satellites, with an emphasis on the connections between rotational dynamics, orbital dynamics, and interior structure. He develops theoretical models which are used to interpret spacecraft and ground-based observations.

Current research interests involve improving our understanding of (1) the formation and evolution of the Moon by analysis of the global lunar figure, which provides a record of prior orbital and rotational states; and (2) characterization of the thermal and orbital evolution of icy satellites, with particular emphasis on determining the long-term survivability of their subsurface oceans.

Dr. Koskinen’s research focuses on the structure and evolution of planet and satellite atmospheres in the Solar System and extrasolar planetary systems. He is particularly interested in the physics and chemistry of the middle and upper atmosphere that he studies with the analysis of observations and theoretical modeling. Tommi was a participating scientist on the Cassini mission and is still actively involved in researching the atmospheres of Saturn and Titan. He develops and maintains models of exoplanet atmospheres that are required to interpret current and planned observations as well as to simulate mass loss and address questions on long-term evolution. Dr. Koskinen was appointed as Assistant Professor at LPL in 2017.

Kris Klein's research focuses on studying fundamental plasma phenomena that governs the dynamics of systems within our heliosphere as well as more distant astrophysical bodies. He has particular interest in identifying heating and energization mechanisms in turbulent plasmas such as the solar wind.

Dr. Klein is serving the Deputy Principal Investigator for the HelioSwarm mission, a planned observatory to launch by the end of this decade nine spacecraft to measure the dynamics and evolution of turbulent plasmas at multiple points across multiple scales. In 2022, he received the Landau-Spitzer Award for Outstanding Contributions to Plasma Physics. He has been with LPL since 2017.

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