Faculty News

Dr. Jack Holt joined the LPL faculty as Professor in April as part of the Earth Dynamics Observatory cluster hire, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Geosciences. He received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1997, was a postdoctoral scholar at JPL, and then spent nearly 20 years at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was most recently a Research Professor at the Institute for Geophysics and the Department of Geological Sciences. He studies ice in the solar system with an emphasis on Mars and Earth. He is a Co-Investigator on the SHARAD radar sounder instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, conducts airborne geophysical studies of Alaskan glaciers as part of NASA’s Operation IceBridge, and has worked extensively in Antarctica. Jack is currently developing new radar sounder techniques and conducting geophysical studies of terrestrial debris-covered glaciers as Mars analogs. The Earth Dynamics Observatory is a collaboration across departments (and even colleges) at UA designed to complement the excellence in upward-looking science established by LPL and Steward Observatory with a downward-looking view of Earth as a planet.

Kudos to Assistant Professor Christopher Hamilton, who received the Geological Society of America (GSA) Early Career Award in the Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology, & Volcanology Division. Professor Hamilton was previously awarded a NASA Early Career Fellowship.

In addition the GSA Early Career Award, Professor Hamilton won a faculty fellowship from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; the fellowship provides a stipend and a 10-week summer residency at Marshall.

Professor Adam Showman has been named a 2018 Galileo Circle Fellow, one of the highest honors for faculty in the University of Arizona College of Science. 

This award recognizes scholars with "a deep understanding over a broad range of science, a willingness to think in a truly interdisciplinary way, and an ability to inspire colleagues and students." Galileo Fellows receive $5,000 and lifetime membership in the Galileo Circle.

LPL professors Renu Malhotra and Alfred McEwen are previous recipients of the Galileo Fellows Award. Congratulations to Adam on this well deserved honor!

Professor Roger V. Yelle was named a 2017 Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Professor Yelle was awarded "for significant advances in understanding the upper atmospheres of planets and implications for planetary evolution." The Fellows program "recognizes AGU members who have made exceptional contributions to Earth and space sciences as valued by their peers and vetted by a committee of Fellows." Professor Yelle will be recognized at the AGU fall meeting in New Orleans on December 13.

Kudos and congratulations to Daniel Apai and Isamu Matsuyama on moving into the Associate Professor rank, and to Walter Harris on obtaining tenure!

Daniel Apai
Associate Professor

Walter Harris
Associate Professor

Isamu Matsuyama
Associate Professor

On May 10, LPL Professor Dante Lauretta was inducted into the Boys & Girls Clubs of America's Hall of Fame. On May 12, Professor Lauretta was honored as the recipient of the University of Arizona’s Alumni Achievement Award for 2017. Lauretta received the award during the University's Commencement ceremony. He also will be named as the UA College of Humanities Alumnus of the Year at an event to be held on October 27. The Alumni Achievement Award is the highest honor the UA Alumni Association can bestow on graduates of the University. It is given to an alumnus or alumna who has attained prominence in his or her field of endeavor and demonstrated outstanding service to the UA.

Lauretta is principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. He is an expert in the analysis of extraterrestrial materials such as lunar samples, meteorites and comet particles. His work contributes to our understanding of the chemistry of the early solar system and the origin of complex molecules that may have led to life on Earth. Under Lauretta's leadership, OSIRIS-REx aims to further public engagement in science. The mission's website features entertaining and engaging videos about planetary science, and mission staff appear as guest speakers at local conventions and in classrooms.

"I am honored to receive the UA Alumni Achievement Award," Lauretta said. "The University of Arizona has been an essential part of my career from my undergraduate days through my faculty appointment. I am proud to have studied here and to now be contributing to the UA's important education mission."

After 45 years of service to the University of Arizona as a faculty member and as Director/Department Head (LPL/Planetary Sciences, 1977-1981), Professor William Hubbard will transition to Professor Emeritus in May.

Professor Hubbard earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1967 from the University of California, Berkeley (Electron Conduction in Degenerate Stellar Matter with L.G. Henyey). He joined LPL in 1972 as Associate Professor, and was promoted to Professor in 1975. In No Longer Points of Light, Bill recalls his early days at LPL: "I was recruited by Gerard Kuiper. He was a very energetic person, especially given his age. He was very enthusiastic about his new department, and he took me on a tour of all of his observing sites around the area....He talked to me about where he thought the Laboratory was heading and what he thought my role would be in it....The way he expressed it to me was that the Department was going to be an essential component for keeping the Laboratory in existence. At that time it was only LPL; there was no Department. He thought that in order to ensure the longevity of the whole enterprise that we needed an academic arm; we needed to have graduate students, we needed to have a teaching program."

Professor Hubbard has been the recipient of many honors and awards throughout the course of his distinguished career, including election as a Fellow to the American Geophysical Union (1991) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2003). He was awarded the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize in Planetary Sciences by the Division for Planetary Sciences (AAS) in 2005. In 2012, Professor Hubbard received NASA Group Achievement Awards for the Juno (mission) proposal and for Juno mission development, launch, and early operations. He was honored with the Blitzer Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Physics and Related Sciences (University of Arizona) in 2013. Professor Hubbard's former students include Jonathan Fortney (Ph.D., 2004), Maki Hattori (M.S., 2008), Joseph MacFarlane (Ph.D., 1983), Robert Marcialis (Ph.D., 1990), Mark Marley (Ph.D., 1990), and Wayne Slattery (Ph.D., 1976).

Mark Marley, Jonathan Fortney, Bob Marcialis, and Didier Saumon pose with their former advisor, Bill Hubbard.

LPL alum Cliff Stoll sent his greetings and a personalized Klein bottle.

Bill was gifted with a planetary orb created by Philabum Glass.

Didier Saumon and Ilaria Pascucci with the guest of honor.

On April 15, Regents' Professor Renu Malhotra presented a TEDx Portland talk about Planet Nine.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Shane Byrne, who won second place for the 2017 Outstanding Faculty for Graduate and Professional Student Achievement Award, sponsored by the University of Arizona Graduate and Professional Student Council. The award is presented to faculty who have made outstanding efforts to mentor and advise graduate or professional students in their college or department; criteria include: creating opportunities for the graduate/professional students, faculty, and staff with whom they work to achieve excellence; demonstrating outstanding efforts of mentorship and develop mentees’ research and professional skills; mentoring a wide persity of students; assisting students to present and publish their work, to find financial aid, and to provide career guidance; offering psychological support, encouragement, and essential strategies for life in the scholarly community; demonstrating continued interest in the student's professional advancement.