LPL's Dante Lauretta delivered the UArizona commencement address on May 13, 2022. Professor Lauretta graduated from UArizona in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in physics and mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts in Oriental studies with an emphasis in Japanese He earned his Ph.D. in Earth and planetary sciences in 1997 from Washington University. He is Principal Investigator of the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission.

Interspersed throughout Lauretta's speech, video clips showcasing OSIRIS-REx's biggest milestones played on the stadium's big screens. And before he shared tales of overcoming the monumental challenges that come with space exploration, Lauretta took graduates back to a time they could relate to a bit more.

Lauretta's first yes, he said, came one day in 1992, after a long shift as a short-order breakfast cook – before Lauretta, then a math, physics and East Asian studies major at UArizona, even knew planetary sciences was a discipline. He opened an issue of The Daily Wildcat, the university's student newspaper, to find a full-page ad emblazoned with, "Work for NASA." He applied and was accepted to NASA's Space Grant internship program, launching him into a career of yeses, he said.

The next significant yes, Lauretta said, was in 2004, when he received a phone call from Michael J. Drake, then the director LPL. Drake asked Lauretta to join him and some executives from Lockheed Martin to discuss a partnership on a new space mission. That mission was OSIRIS-REx, which would go on to launch in 2016, arrive at near-Earth asteroid Bennu in 2018 and collect a sample in 2020. Now on its return journey, it is expected to deliver the sample to Utah's West Desert in September 2023. The sample will likely yield fundamental knowledge about the origin of terrestrial planets and strategies to avoid potential asteroid impacts on Earth.

While the mission's successes are clear in hindsight, it was tough to say yes, at the time, to the opportunity that ended up defining his career, Lauretta told the graduates. Drawing up the mission plans and finding funding would be a monumental task, and it could all get canceled at any moment. But he couldn't shake the notion that he could play a role in answering some of humanity's toughest questions: "Where did we come from?" "Are we alone in the universe?" The urge to help find those answers, he said, was too strong for him to say no. Lauretta encouraged graduates to not overlook moments like these.

"On your journeys, remember that big things come from these small moments," he said. "I said yes to applying to the NASA Space Grant program. I said yes to joining Mike on the mission – even when it seemed like magic, like we were wizards trying to summon stones from outer space into our laboratories. By simply saying yes to what presented itself, I found myself at the helm of one of history's greatest scientific expeditions."

Lauretta urged the graduates to reflect on their time in college, imagine their paths ahead and understand that they are not alone. He asked them to take in their surroundings at the ceremony and to recognize that "this is your moment." Even after graduation, they won't stop learning, he assured them.

"It will be the opportunities along the way that you say yes to, the diverse people you meet, the mentors you seek to support (you), the invitations you accept and the challenges you embrace that will lead you toward your destiny and provide for you a much deeper understanding of how it all comes together, how it all fits, just by saying yes," he said. "Stop and take it all in," he added. "These are all the results of yes."

Read more: 'Say yes' to opportunities that call to you, Lauretta tells graduates

LPL Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr. Sarah Moran has been named a University of Arizona Sursum Fellow, selected for her proposal on Haze Evolution in sub-Neptune Exoplanets through UV Laboratory Experiments. The award is a postdoctoral research development grant designed to foster independence and help advance the career goals of postdoctoral scholars by funding small research projects or training experiences that are outside the scope of their current postdoctoral appointments. Sarah's research interests include exoplanets, planetary formation and evolution, and planetary atmospheres.

Kristin Block and Bertha Orosco were recipients of this year's LPL Staff Excellence Award. 

Kristin Block was awarded in the Science and Engineering category for her skills and expertise in systems engineering and project management, as well as contributions to productivity and communications initiatives, which are indispensable to the success of HiRISE. As Principal Science Operations Engineer for HiRISE, Kristin leads development of non-standard special HiRISE imaging and engineering sequences. She was recognized for a long career of outstanding contributions (she has been personally responsible for over 10,000 images of Mars!) and leadership, but this year’s nominations cite two particular efforts that are in addition to her regular duties as a targeting specialist.

During the COVID pandemic, Kristin led a group that implemented a new way of testing HiRISE camera settings that bypasses the original process, which required a long review and approval period. With this new process, HiRISE can test camera settings more than ten times faster without getting special instructions or approval, and the team has discovered combinations that will extend HiRISE lifespan by years. In addition to this extraordinary work, Kristin led a team to organize and acquire HiRISE most famous image of 2021—the landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars. Capturing that moment was incredibly technically difficult and also complicated by the threat of potential communications failures. Thanks to Kristin’s coordination and leadership, mistakes were avoided and the descent was capture by the HiRISE camera. These descent images not only capture the public imagination but provide crucial data that makes it possible to reconstruct the craft's landing sequence and diagnose problems. 

Administrative Associate Bertha Orosco won the LPL Staff Excellence Award in the Administrative Category. Bertha, or Bert as she is known to the department, has been with LPL since 2010 and previously won this award in 2014. In addition to the more traditional administrative work like travel and procurement, Bert’s responsibilities include a wide-ranging variety of tasks, including keeping key elements of the LPL web site updated. Keeping up with all the transitions and updates at LPL is a challenge that Bert navigates exceptionally well. Bert’s achievements on the job are reflected in the increased variety and technical nature of her responsibilities and her willingness to expand her abilities, meet new challenges, and incorporate new tools to better serve the department and all those who contact her throughout any given busy day.

Bert’s work on behalf of LPL during the COVID pandemic is an example of her contributions toward both service and efficiency. Throughout the COVID shutdown, Bert volunteered for in-person duties so the department could function and move ahead with the safety of all in mind. When in-person classes resumed, Bert was in the office and the classrooms to ensure instructors and students had what they needed to accommodate sometimes complicated hybrid classroom and teaching models. She spent many hours over the summer of 2021 in Kuiper classrooms testing a variety of Zoom and audiovisual combinations and documenting procedures. Bert is regularly confronted with special requests and problems. She rises to each challenge with creativity, technical ability, and good humor. She is regularly in the office after 5:00p.m. to ensure that all reservations are approved, announcements are posted, and special events are accommodated, and she is always gracious when her lunch break is interrupted with a request for supplies or technical assistance in a classroom. Given all that she accomplishes in a day, Bert’s most important contribution is perhaps the community she helps to create and maintain even during the most challenging of times.

Also recognized at this year's LPL Awards and Recognition Reception was Administrative Assistant Savannah Salazar-White. Savannah began working with LPL in 2015 as a student. In 2018, she was hired as an Administrative Assistant and began expanding her responsibilities; her supervisor came to rely upon her to assist with training new staff. Savannah's reliability, efficiency, and problem-solving was extremely valuable during the COVID shutdown and her colleagues are thankful for her dedication throughout that period and her continued excellent administrative support.

Rising senior Brooke Caruthers is majoring in Molecular and Cellular Biology with minors in Marine Science and French in addition to Astrobiology. Brooke plans to earn a Ph.D. and pursue astrobiology research related to microbiology either at NASA or another academic institution. Brooke is passionate about the amazing chemical complexity that is biology, but wanted to learn more about how biology interacts with, and is affected by, other processes in order to understand the potential for life elsewhere. She found that the astrobiology minor was the perfect way to take courses on material outside the norm for her major and to interact with other students and professors from various departments. "Plus," Brooke says, "astrobiology allows me to pursue the most fun questions of all, where did we come from and are we alone?" The astrochemistry course taught by Regents Professor Lucy Ziurys has been Brooke's favorite class because she learned about molecular spectroscopy and the formation of stars and because she was able to visit the 20m radio telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Brooke has been working with the Kacar Lab, which recently moved from the UArizona to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in reconstructing ancient proteins to study the evolution of life on a molecular scale. Brooke will soon begin her senior thesis on a climate science GIS mapping project with LPL Professor Amy Mainzer. 

Morgan Cryder is a rising senior majoring in Geosciences with a minor in Math as well as Planetary Sciences. Morgan chose Planetary Sciences because she is just as curious about the other planets in our solar system as she is about the Earth. Morgan says, "I find it really interesting that I can apply what I learned in my geoscience studies or classes to other bodies in our solar system." Morgan has enjoyed all of her PTYS courses but says that the Mars course taught by Regents Professor Alfred McEwen was most memorable. The class was able to request HiRISE images and at the end of the course and each student presented on different Mars topics. Morgan felt that through this course she was able to really understand more about the red planet.

Morgan is currently researching Martian wrinkles with Associate Professor Jeff Andrew-Hanna. They have been analyzing the variability of these ridges and creating different codes to get better data on the characteristics of these ridges. In March, she presented this research at the 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Morgan is still undecided on the direction she wants to take her education and career. This summer she is participating in a petroleum camp and is looking forward to applying those new skills to her research. She hopes that she can incorporate both earth science and space science into her future career.

Xiaohang Chen, Emileigh Shoemaker, Lucas Smith, and Jada Walters are 2022 recipients of the Curson Travel Award.

The Curson Education Plus Fund in Planetary Sciences and LPL was established by Shirley Curson, a generous donor and friend of LPL, for the purpose of supporting travel expenses outside the state of Arizona during summer break. The award is open to students in the Department of Planetary Sciences and Lunar and Planetary Laboratory who propose to fund study, museum visits, special exhibits, seminars, instruction, competitions, research and other endeavors that are beyond those provided by the normal campus environment and are not part of the student’s regular curriculum during the recipient’s school year.

To donate to the Curson Travel fund, visit: https://give.uafoundation.org/science-lpl