Issue 21-01, January 11, 2021
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- CALL FOR DPS 2021 PRIZE NOMINATIONS
- ICARUS NEWS: NEW EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
- NASA TOWN HALL FOR ‘NO DUE DATE’ POLICY
- IN MEMORIAM: GEORGE CARRUTHERS (1939 – 2020)
- JOBS, POSITIONS, OPPORTUNITIES
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CALL FOR DPS 2021 PRIZE NOMINATIONS
Deadline: April 1, 2021
Every year the DPS recognizes exceptional achievement in our field. Please consider nominating a respected colleague for one of the annual DPS prizes.
The DPS sponsors five prizes:
The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize [prizes/kuiper] recognizes and honors outstanding contributors to the field of planetary science.
The Claudia J. Alexander Prize [prizes/alexander] recognizes excellence and achievements by a mid-career scientist.
The Harold C. Urey Prize [prizes/urey] recognizes and encourages outstanding achievements in planetary research by an early-career scientist.
The Harold Masursky Award [prizes/masursky] recognizes and honors individuals who have rendered outstanding service to planetary science and exploration through – but not limited to – engineering, managerial, programmatic, editorial, or public service activities.
The Carl Sagan Medal [prizes/sagan] recognizes and honors outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public.
The Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award [prizes/eberhart] recognizes and stimulates distinguished popular writing on planetary sciences.
DPS members and the planetary science community-at-large are encouraged to submit nominations for DPS prizes.
A complete nomination submitted by the deadline will be considered by the DPS Prize subcommittee for 3 years (i.e. for this year’s award, next year’s award, and the year after that), or for the duration of a candidate’s eligibility, whichever is less. Please fill out the nomination form [prizes/eberhart#Nomination], and it will be submitted to the prize subcommittee. The Eberhart Award has different rules and procedures than the other DPS Prizes, please see its page [prizes/eberhart-nomination-form] for more information.
Scroll to the bottom of prizes for rules and procedures.
Questions: Email [email protected]
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ICARUS NEWS: NEW EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
We are pleased to announce two new Editorial Board members of Icarus, David Nesvorny and Julie Brisset. We thank our former Editorial Board members Athena Coustenis and Kevin Hand for their service.
David Nesvorny is an Institute Scientist at the Department of Space Studies of the Southwest Research Institute. Dr. Nesvorny conducts research in planetary science by building theoretical models for the formation and early evolution of planets and planetesimals. He has developed methods for the exoplanet detection from transit timing variations.
Julie Brisset is a research scientist at the Florida Space Institute (FSI) of the University of Central Florida (UCF), where she works on dust behavior under microgravity conditions for the study of planet formation and regolith. She earned her Master degrees in Aerospace Engineering in 2005 from the ISAE in Toulouse, France and the Technical University of Munich, Germany. After working for several years as an aerospace engineer on ESA ISS payload operations, she started graduate studies in astrophysics at the University of Braunschweig, Germany and received her Ph.D. in 2014. Until 2016, she was a PostDoc researcher at UCF’s Center for Microgravity Research.
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NASA TOWN HALL FOR ‘NO DUE DATE’ POLICY
NASA’s Planetary Science Division will hold a virtual Town Hall meeting on Thursday January 21, 2021 at 1:00 pm ET to discuss the rollout plan for the elimination of due dates for seven R&A programs (SSO, SSW, EW, PICASSO, PDART, LARS, and Exobiology). These programs will be run under a new No Due Date (NoDD) model, which has been successfully demonstrated by multiple groups at the National Science Foundation.
More information including how to participate is available at:
https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/NoDD
https://nasaenterprise.webex.com/nasaenterprise/j.php?MTID=m7b38428f5d8cbba9877dd28055ec460c
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IN MEMORIAM: GEORGE CARRUTHERS (1939 – 2020)
Dr. George Carruthers was an accomplished astrophysicist and engineer, with many contributions to astrophysics and planetary science, and one of only a few African Americans working in the early U.S. space program. He was the principal designer of an ultraviolet camera/spectrograph that went to the moon as part of NASA’s Apollo 16 mission in 1972, in an effort to examine Earth’s atmosphere and the composition of interstellar space, for which he was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal. He continued his instrument development and science research at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory through 2002, when he became a professor at Howard University. His accomplishments included development of an instrument with two far-UV cameras used on the STS-39 space shuttle mission, in 1991, and the first detection of molecular hydrogen in space, via a sounding rocket in 1970. Dr. Carruthers earned many awards for his work, including a National Medal of Technology and Innovation awarded by President Obama. Dr. Carruthers will be remembered as an amazing scientist, engineer, professor and mentor. In particular, he was highly engaged with the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP). He passed on December 26, 2020, at the age of 81.
Notice of Dr. Carruther’s passing from NSBP: https://nsbp.org/news/545345/Dr.-George-Carruthers-Passed-Away.htm
Notice of Dr. Carruther’s passing from NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/looking-back-dr-george-carruthers-and-apollo-16-far-ultraviolet-cameraspectrograph
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JOBS, POSITIONS, OPPORTUNITIES
A) Postdoctoral Scholar Position, Exoplanet Habitability with Aomawa Shields, UC Irvine
planets.ucf.edu or contact the group member closest to your interests.
UCF offers a research-intensive PhD. Students join research groups upon admission, and a submitted lead-author paper is a candidacy requirement. UCF has laboratory facilities for regolith, microgravity, and meteorite studies as well as cubesat and ground-based instrumentation. UCF research instruments have flown on numerous suborbital rockets and the ISS. Our scientific staff in Puerto Rico leads the effort to rebuild Arecibo and operate its LIDAR and other instruments. We have strong academic and research mentoring programs, participate in the APS Bridge program, and have strong research ties with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Application review begins 15 January and continues until positions are filled. We are strongly committed to inclusion and diversity.
C) Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Planetary Sciences
The DPS maintains a website with information for REU Sites that provide summer opportunities in the planetary sciences for undergraduate students. Deadlines for these programs are typically in early February. The website is found here: education/reu-programs
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Send submissions to:
Maria Womack, DPS Secretary ([email protected])
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