Faculty News

New Faculty Member: Isamu Matsuyama

Isamu Matsuyama recently joined PTYS/LPL as an Assistant Professor. Before joining LPL, Isamu spent three years as a Miller Fellow in the department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley. During his Miller Fellowship, Isamu developed theoretical treatments for the analysis of rotational dynamics and its effect on gravity, shape, and tectonic patterns. He used these formalisms to study the rotational stability of planets and moons in the solar system, and to propose explanations for their gravity field and tectonic patterns.

Isamu completed his undergraduate studies in Physics at Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, and attended graduate school at the University of Toronto in Canada where he earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 2005. During his Ph.D. studies, he developed models for the dispersal of protoplanetary disks to explain the observed disk life times, and proposed the dispersal of protoplanetary disks as a mechanism for halting the inward migration of planets.

Isamu's 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; (2) tidal dissipation in the subsurface ocean of icy satellites; and (3) rotational perturbations due to large impacts.

Professor Matsuyama is teaching a core course, PTYS 505B, this spring semester.

Kudos to Dante Lauretta and Adam Showman, both of whom were promoted to Full Professor (from Associate Professor with Tenure), beginning with the 2012-2013 academic year. Kudos, also, to Peter Smith, who was granted tenure (from Full Professor). Our congratulations to Dante, Adam, and Peter!

Professor Joe Giacalone was the recipient of the 12th Annual Professor Leon and Pauline Blitzer Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Physics and Related Sciences. Jacob Mallott and Eric Blitzer presented Professor Giacalone with the award at a special afternoon program held on March 2, 2017. Professor Giacalone's award lecture was titled Solar Storms, Space Radiation and their Effects on Earth and Space Travel. A reception followed in the Kuiper Space Sciences atrium.

Joe has taught courses at all levels including introductory courses in planetary sciences, advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in the physics of the solar system, and an advanced graduate course on the physics of the Sun. His research focus is on understanding the origin and physical processes involved in creating high-energy charged particles near the Sun and how they move throughout the solar system. Joe earned a B.A. in Mathematics (1985) and B.S. in Physics (1986) from Ft. Lewis College; he completed a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Kansas in 1991. Joe began his career at LPL in 1993 as a post-doctoral research associate and joined the tenure-track faculty in 2004. He was a winner of a NASA Early Career award in 2005. He has been directly involved with number of NASA missions, including Ulysses, ACE, and Voyager, and is currently a Co-Investigator for the upcoming NASA mission Solar Probe Plus, launching next year, which will explore the outer atmosphere of the Sun.

The Blitzer Award is funded through the Blitzer Teaching Award Fund, and commemorates Professor Leon Blitzer and his wife, Pauline Meyer Blitzer.

Dr. Jeff Andrews-Hanna joined LPL in January as an Associate Professor. Jeff is a planetary scientist, interested in all aspects of the evolution and structure of the terrestrial planets. He joined LPL after working at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder where he was a staff scientist. Jeff earned his Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science at Washington University in St Louis, where he focused on the hydrology of Mars; he then pursued a postdoc position at MIT, where he worked on martian geophysics. Jeff's primary research interests are in hydrologic, tectonic, volcanic, and geodynamic processes on the terrestrial planets, making use of a combination of numerical modeling and data analysis. Ongoing research topics include the analysis of gravity data from NASA’s GRAIL mission to investigate subsurface structures on the Moon, hydrological modeling applied to the formation of sedimentary deposits on Mars, data and modeling applied to understanding volcanic eruption products on Mars, and geophysical studies of tectonics across the inner Solar System.

At the beginning of October, Dr. Lynn Carter joined LPL as an Associate Professor, as part of the Earth Dynamics Observatory cluster hire. Lynn is a planetary scientist whose research interests include volcanism and impact cratering on the terrestrial planets, regolith development on the Moon and asteroids, outer Solar System moons, planetary analog field studies, climate change, and the development of radar remote sensing techniques. Lynn was previously a Civil Service research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for six years, where she began working with engineers on the development of a beamforming polarimetric radar system for orbital spacecraft. She is co-I on three spacecraft radar instruments: SHARAD on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, RIMFAX on the Mars2020 rover, and REASON on the Europa Flagship mission. She also recently became the Deputy PI of the Mini-RF radar on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. In addition to multiple current planetary geology projects, she has become interested in Earth science research and is part of a project to study permafrost loss in Alaska using a combination of ground penetrating radar, in-situ carbon and methane monitoring, and orbital atmospheric constituent retrievals. At LPL she plans to continue to pursue interdisciplinary projects using geophysical remote sensing techniques.

Dr. Vishnu Reddy joined LPL this fall as an Assistant Professor as part of space situational awareness cluster. Vishnu is a planetary spectroscopist with an interest in understanding the behavior of natural and artificial space objects using a range of remote sensing techniques and sensors. Prior to LPL, he worked as a research scientist at Planetary Science Institute, and as research faculty at the University of North Dakota working on ground-based physical characterization of near-Earth objects. He also worked as a scientist on NASA Dawn mission as a member of the Framing Camera team at the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany. At LPL, he will develop a new spectroscopy lab focused on characterizing space material in space-like conditions for both civilian and military uses, as well as exploring new ways to do low-cost planetary missions.

The following faculty have been notified by the University of Arizona Provost of promotions effective August 2016:

Dr. Travis Barman, from Associate Professor to Associate Professor with tenure

Dr. Ilaria Pascucci, from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure

Dr. Tom Zega, from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure

Congratulations to Travis, Ilaria, and Tom!

Professor Emerita Elizabeth (Pat) Roemer, passed away on April 8, 2016. Pat joined LPL in 1966, and retired in 1997. In 1972, Dr. Roemer chaired the committee tasked with organizing a department of planetary sciences for the University of Arizona. She specialized in comets and asteroids, starting at a time long before those were popular topics, and was a female professor in a male-dominated community long before that was commonplace. She was also a staunch friend and supporter of the LPL library for many years.

Professor Renu Malhotra has garnered two high honors this spring. In January, she received a Louise Foucar Marshall Science Research Professorship at the University of Arizona. This award, from the Tucson-based Marshall Foundation, is in recognition of her outstanding work in orbital dynamics.

In April, Professor Malhotra was named a Regents’ Professor by the Arizona Board of Regents. The title of Regents’ Professor is the highest level of recognition bestowed on faculty in the Arizona state university system. It recognizes full professors whose work has garnered national and international distinction; no more than 3 percent of faculty can hold the title at any given time.

In 2015, Professor Malhotra was elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and to the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Christopher Hamilton received a 2015 NASA Fellowship for Early Career Researchers, which was established to facilitate the integration of new planetary science researchers into funding programs and advanced positions. The award included $100,000 in support of establishing "Precision Geodetic Constraints for Terrestrial Analog Studies of Planetary Surface Processes." The award was used to purchase Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) survey equipment through Trimble's University Partnership Program. The Trimble DGPS equipment was used to help support Dr. Hamilton's 2015 field campaign in Iceland (see Icelandic Analogs to Planetary Volcanism).

Professor Alfred McEwen was named the recipient of the 2015 Whipple Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of planetary science, will be presented at the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco. Past recipients of the Whipple Award (established in 1989) include Gene Shoemaker, David Stevenson, and Harry McSween.

In addition, he was named a Galileo Circle Fellow in UA's College of Science, an honor reserved for 10% of the College faculty. Professor Renu Malhotra is the only other LPL faculty member named as a Galileo Circle Fellow.

Professor McEwen earned his Ph.D. in Planetary Geology from Arizona State University in 1988. He has been with LPL since 1996. He serves as director of the Planetary Image Research Laboratory and is a member of the imaging science team of the Cassini mission to Saturn; co-investigator on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbit Camera (LROC) team; and principal investigator of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Professor McEwen has advised, mentored, and supported many students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. In 2011, he received NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal.

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