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ANDREW A. DANTZLER (Age 49) of Sykesville, died on Thursday, October 13, 2011. Born March 25, 1962 in Bethesda, he was the son of Taft Dantzler of Blacksburg, VA and Barbara Surrett Dantzler of Rockville. He was the husband of Erin E. Dantzler of Sykesville. They had been married for 17 years. Andy worked at NASA from 1984-2006, serving as an optical engineer, EOS manager, Landsat 7 manager, assistant chief of the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, and Director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Headquarters. In 2006, Andy joined The Johns Hopkins University APL’s Civilian Space Business Area to lead the Living with a Star Missions. Andy was also the first Program Manager for Solar Probe Plus, which will journey closer to the Sun than any probe has ever gone. Andy was promoted to Program Area Manager for Civilian Space in 2009, overseeing program management for projects such as the MESSENGER mission, now in orbit about Mercury and the New Horizons mission on its way to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Andy’s other passion was Judo. He was a 3rd degree black belt in Judo and a member of the USA Judo Association. He was also a nationally certified coach and referee. In addition to his parents and wife, he is survived by daughter Melanie M. Celano of Falls Church, VA, sons Nicholas A. and Wesley S. Dantzler, both of Sykesville, brother Stephen Dantzler, sister Kathryn Payne and husband Bryan, brother Mark Dantzler and wife Cindy and stepmother Gladys Dantzler, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends Tuesday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jeffrey N. Zumbrun Funeral Home, 6028 Sykesville Road, Eldersburg. A funeral service will be held Wednesday, 11 a.m. at the Wesley Freedom United Methodist Church, 961 Johnsville Road, Sykesville. Sympathies may be expressed in the form of contributions to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, Gift Processing Center, P.O. Box 6062, Albert Lea, MN 56007-6662 or the Dantzler Scholarship Fund c/o Capital One Bank, 6090 Daybreak Circle, Clarksville, MD 21029. Online condolences may be offered at www.jnzumbrunfuneralhome.com

Published in The Washington Post on October 16, 2011

 

Ronald Greeley, Regents’ Professor of planetary geology in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, died Oct. 27, in Tempe, Arizona at the age of 72. Greeley has been involved in lunar and planetary studies since 1967 and has contributed significantly to our understanding of planetary bodies within our solar system.

The son of a military serviceman, Greeley moved around a great deal as child, providing him the opportunity to recognize differences and similarities in the landscape. In a memorable road trip during his early teens, while moving from Illinois to California, he would collect rocks and examine the geology of road-cuts along the way.

He went on to Geology at Mississippi State University, receive B.S. and M.S. degrees there. In 1966 he received a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Missouri at Rolla. His Ph.D. research included field work on the Mississippi Barrier Islands, where he studied modern living forms of organisms that he was researching in the fossil rock record. This work foreshadowed a research career in which Greeley observed the present action of processes that were believed to be operating on our solar system’s planets and satellites.

After a year working for Standard Oil Company of California as a paleontologist, in 1967 Greeley was called to active military duty as an officer. Given his background in geology and remote sensing, the Army assigned him to NASA’s Ames Research Center to work on Apollo-related problems. (Greeley sometimes openly mused about whether this assignment came about by someone’s misunderstanding of his thesis topic of “lunulitiform bryozoans” as being somehow related to the geology of the Moon.)

At Ames, his research career in planetary science was launched, as he trailblazed the field of planetary geology alongside such colleagues as Verne Oberbeck, William Quaide, and Don Gault. Though Greeley had been hired by Gault to work on cratering, he was given relatively free rein to investigate planetary research topics of interest. Greeley became interested in lava tubes and lava channels as possible analogs to lunar features, and in the early 1970s he published a series of papers comparing lunar “rilles” with lava tubes and channels in Hawaii and in Idaho’s Snake River Plain. Work in both these areas resulted in publication of two superb field guides, and a 1971 Science article interpreting Hadley Rille—to be visited by Apollo 15 astronauts later that year—as a lava channel.

During this same period, stimulated by the new Mariner 9 pictures from Mars, Greeley began using wind tunnels at Ames to simulate how aeolian processes might operate on different planets. These experiments led to a succession of influential papers by Greeley and coworkers, including Jim Pollack, Jim Iverson, Bruce White, and others. These papers combined observation, theory, and careful experimental work to refine the physics of aeolian processes so that we could better understand wind-related erosion and deposition on other planets where conditions are very different from here on Earth.

While the initial research emphasis was Mars, Greeley subsequently conceived, designed, and built a wind tunnel that operates at Venus pressures, which would ultimately lead to better understanding of aeolian processes on our sister planet. As a result of this collective work, Greeley has become recognized not only as an expert in planetary science, but also as an expert on terrestrial aeolian processes, frequently consulted on problems of desertification and wind erosion.

Carleton Moore, founding director of Arizona State University’s Center for Meteorite Studies, met Greeley while on sabbatical at Ames. “I saw Ron and I saw potential,” he recalls. “When I got the opportunity, I hired him.” Greeley began teaching at ASU in 1977 with a joint professorship in the Department of Geology and the Center for Meteorite Studies.

Among other research projects, Greeley conducted photogeological mapping of planets and satellites, establishing ASU’s Space Photography Laboratory. In 1986, Greeley left the Center for Meteorite Studies to serve as chair of the Department of Geology.

“It was exciting to have him here; he was a major step in advancing space at ASU. He was the first one that came that did missions and experiments on planetary bodies,” says Moore. “He was really the first person to reach out to the other planets.”

In 1981, Greeley hired Phil Christensen as a postdoctoral researcher. “Ron played a major role in my career,” says Christensen, now a Regents’ Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “I came to ASU specifically to work with Ron after receiving my graduate degree, and I have remained at ASU for 30 years largely because of the remarkable environment that Ron created here to foster planetary science as an extension of geology.”

“Ron Greeley was indisputably one of the founders of planetary science, and the influence he has had, both through his own work and through the students and colleagues that he guided and mentored, touches virtually all aspects of this field,” says Christensen.

The many researchers mentored by Greeley include: Paul Spudis, Pete Schultz, Jim Zimbelman, Dave Crown, Jeff Moore, Eileen Theilig, Grady Blount, Dan Blumberg, Laurie Leshin, Bob Pappalardo, David R. Williams, David A. Williams, Patricio Figueredo, Bob Craddock, Rob Sullivan, Steve Kadel, Jim Rice, Thomas Doggett, and Mitch Schulte.

Greeley served as director of the NASA-ASU Regional Planetary Image Facility and principal investigator of the Planetary Aeolian Laboratory at NASA-Ames Research Center. He served on and chaired many NASA and National Academy of Science panels, and he most recently chaired the Planetary Science Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council.

Greeley was involved in nearly every major space probe mission flown in the solar system since the Apollo Moon landing. Mission projects included the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Magellan mission to Venus, and the Shuttle Imaging Radar orbiter around Earth. He also conducted research on the moons of Uranus and Neptune, observed by the Voyager 2 mission.

Passionate about Mars exploration, Greeley has been involved with nearly all missions to the Red Planet: Mariner (6, 7, 9), Viking, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, and the Mars Exploration Rovers. He served as a co-investigator for the camera system onboard the ongoing European Mars Express mission.

Greeley’s work lives on in proposed missions to Europa, Ganymede, and the Jupiter system, which he has tirelessly championed as US co-chair of the Joint Jupiter Science Definition Team.

“Ron was a profoundly influential scientist whose imprint on planetary science will live on through his body of research and the many students he taught and mentored. He was a wonderful friend and colleague. We were fortunate to have known him and will miss him terribly,” said Kip Hodges, founding director of the ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration.

Greeley is survived by his wife Cindy, his son Randall (Lidiette), and three grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his daughter, Vanessa.

In lieu of gifts, a scholarship fund is being set up to aid planetary students; more information on this will be announced once details are available. A Facebook page dedicated to Ron Greeley will be updated with related information, including information on memorial services: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ronald-Greeley/180794408673305?sk=wall&fi… . You are also invited to that site to post your memories of Ron.

(Contributing to this piece are Bob Pappalardo, Nicole Cassis, Mike Carr, and Jeff Moore.)

 

The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory has published an obituary for Charles Sonnett.

The Division for Planetary Sciences sadly announces that Michael J. Drake, Regents’ Professor, director of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and head of the department of planetary sciences, died September 21st at The University of Arizona Medical Center-University Campus in Tucson, Ariz. He was 65.

Drake, who joined the UA planetary sciences faculty in 1973 and headed LPL and the planetary sciences department since 1994, played a key role in a succession of very high-profile space projects that garnered international attention for LPL and the University such as the Cassini mission to explore Saturn, the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer onboard NASA’s Mars Odyssey Orbiter, the HiRISE camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Phoenix Mars Lander. Drake was currently the principal investigator of the most ambitious UA project to date, OSIRIS-REx, a mission designed to retrieve a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth.

Drake also was a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geochemical Society and the Meteoritical Society, and he was president of the latter two. He led a major undergraduate teaching effort in planetary sciences, even though the department was created as a graduate program.

He will be missed as a world-class scientist, a valued colleague and professor and a great contributor to Planetary Sciences.

The full story and photos are online at: http://www.uanews.org/node/42011 .

 

The Division for Planetary Sciences is very sad to announce that our valued colleague and friend, Angioletta Coradini, passed away on September 4, 2011. Angioletta Coradini started her scientific career in 1969 with her PhD thesis at the Rome University “La Sapienza” devoted to the origin of the glassy particles found in the lunar soils. She worked on lunar samples from the Apollo missions during the seventies, at the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale of the Italian National Reseach Council (CNR). At the same time she started to study the formation of the solar system, becoming a leading expert in that field.

During the eighties she expanded her interest in space instrumentation through a collaboration with the JPL Team who developed the TIMS (Thermal Infrared Mass Spectroscope), gaining experience which allowed her to lead the Italian team for the Cassini VIMS Spectrometer visual channel. Angioletta Coradini did also a lot of management of space experiments, through a long series of successes starting from the PI-ship of VIRTIS on Rosetta. Other experiments in which Angioletta was involved include VIR on DAWN, now in orbit around the Vesta asteroid, JIRAM on the Juno mission en route to Jupiter, the infrared spectrometers on Venus Express, Bepi Colombo, and many other projects.

Angioletta was Head of the Planetology Departement of the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale (1982-1986), Director of the CNR National Group of Astronomy (1984-1990), Director of the CNR (after INAF) Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (2003-2011). All in all, Angioletta was one of the world-recognized leading experts in Planetary Sciences, with varied interests ranging from minor bodies to outer planets and theoretical work on the formation of our Solar system. She made fundamental contributions in all these domains in addition to her involvement in the development and management of some of the most important space missions in this field.

In recognition of her significant contributions to the planetary sciences she had received several awards and recognitions. Her human and scientific qualities will be missed and remembered by her family, colleagues and friends.

There will be a tribute session to Angioletta at the EPSC-DPS meeting (see hereafter).

 

DPS 2000 Kuiper Prize Recipient, Conway Leovy, passed away on July 9, 2011, aged 78. Conway was a prominent planetary scientist with major contributions in our understanding of the terrestrial planets, Mars and Venus, but also of Jupiter and Saturn’s satellite, Titan. In particular, Conway was very actively involved in Mars’ exploration and participated and contributed to the Mariner 6, 7 and 9 missions, the Viking landers and more recently in the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Furthermore, Leovy furthered our knowledge in different branches of Earth’s atmospheric science.

Leovy was Emeritus professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysics at the University of Washington, Seattle.
For his DPS prize see: prizes/2000

He will be sorely missed by his family, colleagues and friends. A more detailed tribute and memorial information related to Leovy can be found at: http://www.atmos.washington.edu/people/leovy

 

Elisabetta Pierazzo, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, died at her home in Tucson, Arizona, on May 15. She was 47.

Betty was an expert in the area of impact modeling throughout the solar system, as well as an expert on the astrobiological and environmental effects of impacts on Earth and Mars. Her work ranged widely, from providing detailed insights into the Chicxulub impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs to putting constraints on the thickness of the ice shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa. She was interested in the rise of life and explored the delivery of organics to planets and Europa by comets as well as the creation of subsurface hydrothermal systems by impacts that may have been favorable sites for life on Mars.

She was also an expert on Meteor Crater in Arizona and made several appearances on national and international broadcasts of programs including National Geographic specials, explaining the formation of this well-known structure. Betty was innovative, rigorous and systematic in her approach to science. She recognized the need for benchmarking and validating the different complex numerical codes to model impact and explosion cratering, organizing and leading a community effort to accomplish this major task. In addition to her science, Betty passionately promoted science education and public outreach. She took time away from her successful research career to teach undergraduates at the University of Arizona, she developed interactive websites and impact rock and meteorite kits for classroom use, as well as created professional development workshops for elementary and middle school science teachers.

Betty arrived in the United States in 1989 from Italy and the following year attended graduate school at the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. She handled the difficulties of living in a foreign country by opening her house and her kitchen to others. She received her Ph.D. in 1997. The quality of her graduate work was recognized by the University of Arizona with the Gerard P. Kuiper Memorial Award. She continued at the University of Arizona as a Research Associate, and in 2002 joined the Planetary Science Institute as a Research Scientist. She was promoted to Senior Scientist in 2007.

Betty was an active member of the planetary community. She served on numerous NASA review panels, was an associate editor of Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences, reviewed papers for numerous scientific journals, served as organizer of workshops and meetings on impact cratering held around the world, and was an organizer of the 2007 Meteoritical Society Meeting held in
Tucson, Arizona.

Betty was noted for the intensity with which she approached both life and work. Whether it was in the office, the classroom, on the volleyball court, the soccer field, or dance floor, her enthusiasm and joy in the activity was irresistible. She was cherished by very many people for her staunch friendship and support. She inspired countless people as a colleague, teacher, mentor and friend. Her life was even more brightened with her marriage to Keith Powell in 2007.

Over the past six months, Betty battled a rare form of cancer. She dealt with it aggressively, and never let it overwhelm her. She was always looking towards the future. In the last week of her life, in the midst of chemotherapy, she was grading class papers, working on research papers, writing reviews and preparing education proposals with her colleagues, all the while finding time to spend precious moments with her family and friends. She was ultimately and suddenly struck down by a pulmonary embolism.

Her loss is great to all those who knew her and worked with her. Hers is a great loss to the Planetary Science Institute and to our profession. We are grateful to her husband, Keith, and to her family for the time she did have with us.

[from the obituary posted on the Planetary Science Institute website]

Baruch Blumberg, who headed the NASA Astrobiology Institute from 1999 to 2002, and won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine for identifying the Hepatitis B virus, has died, at the age of 85, on April 5, 2011.
The DPS recognizes the loss of a remarkable person and his contribution in several scientific communities, from Medicine to being the first permanent NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Director.

He will be sorely missed.