Spring

PTYS/LPL alumna Jade Bond (2008) married Jason Carter on February 26, 2011, at St. Ann's Chapel in Tucson. Jade is currently a postdoctoral research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. Best wishes to Jade and Jason!

Steve Pearce earned his Ph.D. from PTYS/LPL in 1995, working with Gene Levy. The title of his dissertation is "Core-mantle interactions resulting from sudden changes in the Earth's moment of inertia."

Steve sends the following update:

"I have been full-time faculty at Simon Fraser University (SFU), School of Computing Science, as a Lecturer. I am currently writing a textbook on the theory of technology. Other than that, I haven't been publishing.

I am loosely affiliated with the Dept. of Earth Sciences at SFU, and teach their PTYS course (for poets). I had a Skype interview with Tom Jones last year for the class---it was a hoot!

I had a company that was Kyoto oriented—what a farce that is—went under in 2003.

My website is at http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~stevenp."

PTYS graduate student Lissa Ong married Galen Holt at a ceremony at Tucson's Tanque Verde Guest Ranch on March 19, 2011. All our best wishes to Lissa and Galen!

Melissa Dykhuis, first-year graduate student, has been awarded a NSF Graduate Research Program Fellowship. Melissa's research interests are in solar system dynamics and origins---but she adds that this is "to put it most concisely....I'm interested in lots of stuff!" The proposed fellowship project was titled "Investigating Asteroid-Meteorite Connections: A Spectroscopic Study of the Koronis Region." Melissa says, "But again, I'm interested in lots of stuff, so I don't know if asteroid-meteorite connections will be my thesis work...."

Congratulations, Melissa!

Five PTYS/LPL graduate students were recipients of a Galileo Circle Scholarship. This is one of the most prestigious awards bestowed on students in the College of Science. The awards are made possible by the generous donations of members of the Galileo circle, a society of individuals who support excellence in the sciences at the University of Arizona.

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2011 College of Science Galileo Cirle Scholarships:

Ingrid Daubar Spitale (Alfred McEwen)


Nikole Lewis (Adam Showman)


Jamie Molaro (Shane Byrne)


Kathryn Volk (Renu Malhotra)


John Weirich (Tim Swindle).

Congratulations to Meg Blome, recipient of the PTYS/LPL Fall 2010 Graduate Teaching Assistant Excellence Award. Meg is a doctoral student in the Department of Geosciences. She was nominated for this award for her work as a GTA in Steven Kortenkamp's PTYS 206 course. As recipient of the GTA Excellence Award, Meg will receive funding to travel to the science meeting of her choice.