Issue 25-17, Jul 29, 2025
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- MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR: CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2025 DPS COMMITTEE NEW MEMBERS AND DPS PRIZE AWARDEES
- EARLY REGISTRATION ENDING SOON FOR THE EPSC-DPS 2025 MEETING
- DPS MEMBERS MEETING AT THE EPSC-DPS 2025 MEETING
- OPEN MIC NIGHT AT THE 2025 EPSC-DPS MEETING
- MENTORING AT EPSC-DPS 2025
- DEPENDENT CARE GRANT APPLICATION FOR 2025 EPSC-DPS
- CLASSROOM VISITS DURING EPSC-DPS 2025
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MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR: CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2025 DPS COMMITTEE NEW MEMBERS AND DPS PRIZE AWARDEES
It is with great pleasure that I would like to welcome to our DPS committee the newly elected members:
My sincere congratulations to Dr JA Grier, the incoming Vice-Chair and to Drs Arianna Piccialli and Eddie Schwieterman who are the incoming Committee members.
My heartfelt thanks to all who ran in these elections and were prepared to serve our community. The Division for Planetary Sciences relies on volunteers for its leadership positions and we thank all members who were willing to run for these elected positions. A special thanks to our Nominating Subcommittee, Tim Livengood, Jessica Noviello and Therese Encrenaz for assembling the 2025 slate of candidates and Diane Frendak for her technical support running the elections.
We are also announcing at this time the DPS 2025 Prize and Awards winners. Indeed, as every year the DPS recognizes exceptional achievement in our field with the following Awards and Prizes:
- The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize is awarded to Dr Faith Villas and it honors outstanding contributions to the field of planetary science.
- The Harold C. Urey Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in planetary research and is awarded this year to two extremely deserving young scientists: Dr Xinting Yu and Dr James Keane
- The Harold Masursky Award acknowledges this year Dr Rosaly Lopes’ outstanding service to planetary science and exploration.
- The Carl Sagan Medal is bestowed to Dr Lisa Kaltenegger and recognizes and honors outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public.
- The Alexander Prize recognizes Dr Matt Hedman’s outstanding contributions that have significantly advanced our knowledge of planetary systems, including our solar system.
- The Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award recognizes and stimulates distinguished popular writing on planetary sciences and is bestowed this year to Liz Kruesi.
Detailed descriptions of each of the prizes and the criteria for nominees for each can be found at http://dps.aas.org/prizes. The prizes will be presented at the 2025 EPSC-DPS Joint meeting at 2 pm on Thursday Sept 11 in Helsinki Finland, which will be 7 am Eastern Time.
We gratefully thank the DPS Prize Subcommittee who worked with the nominations this year (Chair: Carol Raymond) and encourage everyone to make nominations in the coming years.
The DPS committee joins me in warmly congratulating our colleagues for their achievements and service to the community! In these challenging times for planetary sciences it is always appreciated to have a chance to recognize the activities and great results of people in our field that bring merit and pride to our community.
Athena Coustenis
DPS Chair
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EARLY REGISTRATION ENDING SOON FOR THE EPSC-DPS 2025 MEETING
Early registration for the EPSC-DPS Joint 2025 Meeting in Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland will close on July 31, 2025 at 5:59 pm ET. The early registration payment can be made by bank transfer, credit card (Mastercard, VISA, JCB or American Express), or PayPal. As of 1 August 2025, the late registration rates will be applied and payment of your registration will only be possible by credit card or PayPal. Bank transfer payments of registrations will not be possible in case of registering after 31 July 2025, 5:59 pm ET. Please consider that a registration at the early registration rate requires the payment of the registration amount within the deadline indicated on the invoice (14 days after receipt of invoice). Unpaid early registrations after the payment deadline will be cancelled and the late registration rates will be applied.
Please use the following link to access the registration page where you can find more information about the rates and the in person or virtual registration process.
Registration is required for all EPSC-DPS 2025 participants including presenting authors of submitted and accepted abstracts, session conveners, and solicited speakers. Registration fees cover access to all scientific events, as well as refreshments during the coffee breaks and networking events.
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DPS MEMBERS MEETING AT THE EPSC-DPS 2025 MEETING
The DPS Members meeting will be held in Helsinki, Finland at the Joint EPSC-DPS Meeting on Wednesday Sept 10 at 12:30 pm, which will be 5:30 am Eastern Time. A link will be provided in the future for all DPS members who wish to attend remotely.
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OPEN MIC NIGHT AT THE 2025 EPSC-DPS MEETING
We will be holding the 2025 EPSC/DPS open mic night on Tuesday Sept 9 at a bar called Storyville, across the street from Finlandia Hall. The exact start time is TBD, but will be late evening. Storyville serves food and drinks and will be open prior to the event. Entry is free.
Any registered DPS attendee is welcome to sign up to perform. We typically have musical acts, poetry, spoken word, etc., so don’t be shy. You can either email Joe Spitale ([email protected]) ahead of time to reserve a slot, or you can sign up during the show for a five-minute walk-on slot, subject to availability. To reserve a slot, send the following information by Sept 2 to [email protected]
- Name of act, if any
- Names of participant(s)
- Description of act (e.g., music w/ singing, opera, aerial acrobatics, Romanian bagpipes, extended bongo solo, etc.)
- Contact email address
- Requested duration
- Requested equipment
- Any equipment you are willing to share
Regarding sharing equipment, please do not feel in any way pressured or obligated to share any of your personal equipment if you are not comfortable doing so.
Please note that we won’t be able to let you know how much time we can actually give you until after the sign-ups close, but we’ll do our best to get everyone in!
We look forward to seeing you there!
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MENTORING AT EPSC-DPS 2025
The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) network invites you to participate in the 7th edition of the Mentoring@EPSC program. The mentoring will provide one-on-one meetings between students, PhD candidates, postdocs, and established researchers for informal conversation and
exchange of experiences. All of this with the goal of offering early-career scientists a better experience at EPSC 2025 and a unique networking opportunity! Information about the program can be found here – https://www.europlanet.org/early-careers-network/epec-epsc-dps-2025-helsinki/.
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].
Prospective mentors should fill out this form – https://forms.gle/sX6JAzdBxoiRuBcp8.
Prospective mentees should fill out this form – https://forms.gle/RVpwZ6qNo3LhWwEq8.
The deadline for sign-up is Aug 15.
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DEPENDENT CARE GRANT APPLICATION FOR 2025 EPSC-DPS
The DPS’s Susan Niebur Professional Development Fund provides financial assistance to qualifying DPS members in order to facilitate their meeting attendance by offsetting costs for childcare, elder care, spousal care, etc. at the meeting location or at home during DPS conferences. We are now accepting applications for the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2025 in Helsinki, Finland. First Deadline: Tuesday, August 5, 2025. Review of submissions will begin on the first deadline; further requests will be accepted and reviewed, funding and eligibility permitting. For more information and to apply for the grant, visit: https://dps.aas.org/development/dps-dependent-care-grant-application
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CLASSROOM VISITS DURING EPSC-DPS 2025
During the week of and week after the EPSC-DPS BIANNUAL JOINT conference, the Lecturers Without Borders organization (https://www.lewibo.org/) and Europlanet Society will schedule classroom visits for scientists attending the conference to local schools in and around Helsinki. The program now counts its 5th edition, and for the first time, it is joined by the American
community of Planetary scientists. It gives travelling scientists from both sides of the Atlantic the opportunity to share their knowledge with the local community of schools, creating a temporary hotspot of sharing science.
If you are interested and available to participate, either in-person or virtually, please fill out the following form to indicate your availability – https://form.jotform.com/241661279538061. Contact Dr. Athanasia Nikolaou ([email protected]) for additional information.
At the same time, schools in the US with students from 9 years old or older can declare their interest to follow online lectures in planetary science in this form:
The programme is supported by Europlanet Society, the Division for Planetary Sciences – AAS, University of Helsinki, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Ursa Astronomical Association and Scientix. LUMA joins a communication partner.
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Send submissions to: Denise Stephens, DPS Secretary, at this address [email protected]
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