S. Ichtiaque Rasool passed away peacefully on April 20, 2016. Born in 1930 in Lucknow, India, Ichtiaque moved to France where he earned his doctorate in atmospheric sciences in 1956 at the University of Paris and met his wife of 51 years, Francoise. He came to United States in 1961 at the invitation of Robert Jastrow of the Goddard Institute of Space Science and began what turned out to be an amazing 45 year career with NASA eventually retiring from the position of Chief Scientist for Global Change. In 1968, Ichtiaque spent a sabbatical year in Paris, during which he gave lectures that were instrumental in the formation of a planetology group at the Paris Observatory and attracted Catherine de Bergh, Thérèse Encrenaz, and Daniel Gautier to pursue careers in planetary science. While at GISS, he was appointed an editor of the Journal of The Atmospheric Sciences and actively solicited papers on planetary atmospheres. Ichtiaque became a US citizen in 1970 and in 1971 he moved to NASA Headquarters as the Deputy Director for Planetary Programs under Director Robert S. Kraemer when the Grand Tour Mission was under consideration and cancelled and resurrected as Voyager 1 (Mariner Jupiter Saturn) and 2 (Mariner Jupiter Uranus Neptune). During this period there was also the launch and landing of Viking Spacecrafts on Mars. Later Ichtiaque served as Noel Hinner’s Deputy for Science before moving over to the Earth Science side of NASA. After joining GISS he collaborated with Arv Kliore on Mariner radio occultation measurements of the atmospheres/ionospheres of Mars and Venus. With Catherine de Bergh he wrote one of the early papers about the runaway greenhouse on Venus and with Stephen Schneider he raised the issue about the combined effects of large increases in CO2 and aerosols in a Science publication. He was the recipient of the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1974, the William T. Pecora Award in 2002, and the COSPAR William Nordberg Medal in 1988. Throughout his career he was a strong advocate for international cooperation in Earth and planetary sciences, even during waning years of the cold war. Ichtiaque is survived by his wife, his son, Immanuel Rasool, his daughter, Elisa Petit, and four grandchildren. For those who would like to know more about his unique career, his book entitled “My Life: From Riches to Rags and (almost) back! A Memoire” is recommended and available from Amazon.com.
Darrell Strobel, Catherine de Bergh, Thérèse Encrenaz, Tobias Owen
The planetary community, and in particular his French colleagues and friends, are very sad to announce the passing of André Brahic. Professor at the University Paris-Diderot, based at the Observatory of Paris until 1995 and the AIM laboratory at CEA Saclay, André Brahic devoted most of his career to the study of solar system bodies, in particular of planetary rings and the formation of planets, but started out by working on the chaos theory, the dynamics of galaxies and the supernovas. He was a member of the scientific teams of the cameras on Voyager 1 and 2, through which he made many discoveries and notably confirmed the existence of Neptune rings and the arcs of the Adams ring, that he had predicted. With an international team, he showed that the Adams ring, is actually composed of four arcs that he and his collaborators baptized “Courage”, “Liberté”, “Egalité”, “Fraternité” (CLEF for “KEY” in French). He was also a member of the science team on the Cassini mission, still returning amazing science results from the Saturnian system, that André would have liked to follow until the mission’s end. André Brahic was of course also an extraordinary communicator, who transmitted his passion for science and astrophysics to generations of students and to the public. This has probably incited many of today astronomers career choices, as it was for me – André was my professor during the Master degree. He knew how to communicate his enthusiasm for science to everyone, whatever their level of education. André Brahic received the DPS Carl Sagan Medal in 2001 and the Jean Perrin 2006 award for scientific popularization. In July 2015, he received the insignia of Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur in France. André Brahic has left an impressive heritage and will always be remembered as a great scientist, a great teacher and a great advocate of communicating with the public.
On February 11, just four days short of her 101st birthday, Mildred Shapley Matthews passed away peacefully at her home in California with her family present. Mildred was the daughter of Harvard College Observatory Director Harlow Shapley and she held the interesting distinction of being “lost in the solar system” for 75 years. As a commemoration of his newborn daughter, Shapley bestowed the name Mildred to asteroid 878 discovered in 1916. Unfortunately the initial observations of the asteroid were limited, and the object was “lost” with highly uncertain orbital elements until recovered in 1991. Friends and colleagues seeing Mildred over the years would always ask, “are you found yet?” Matthews’ foundational contributions to planetary science began around the time of her nominal retirement age, when in the 1970s she began working as the production editor in the inaugural years of the Space Science Series created by Tom Gehrels. Her role became most prominently recognized as co-editor on more than a dozen volumes extending in to the 1990s. Overall for more than 20 Space Science Series volumes she edited, operating through friendly (then increasingly stern, but always polite) post cards and phone calls to delinquent authors, it was Matthews who brought the books into their final published form. Matthews leaves behind a legacy of books that have served as the gateway for countless planetary science careers and insights toward future advancements in our field. In 1993, Matthews received the DPS’ Harold Masursky Award for Meritorious Service to Planetary Science.
Lloyd V. Wallace, Ph.D, Emeritus Astronomer at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, passed away on October 26, 2015 in Tucson. Born in 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, in humble circumstances, Lloyd developed an early interest in solar and planetary astronomy and was a protégé of Ralph Nichols, a physics professor at the University of Western Ontario. Later he moved back to the United States and obtained his Ph.D in Astronomy at the University of Michigan in 1957 under Leo Goldberg. It was while he was at the University of Michigan that he met and married his wife, Ruth. At various times in his early career, and as the result of a complex series of events, he held Canadian, British, and United States citizenships and even found time to become an expert professional electrician. On acquiring his degree he obtained a position with Joe Chamberlain at the Yerkes Observatory and began a lifetime association with Chamberlain and Don Hunten (then a visitor to Yerkes) in atmospheric and spectroscopic research. In 1962 they moved to Tucson where Chamberlain became the head of the Space Division at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, a unit set up by the first director, Aden Meinel, to apply advances in technology to astronomical research. Lloyd was hired as the principal experimenter in the observatory’s sounding rocket program, which was set up by the National Science Foundation to provide staff and visitor access to the upper atmosphere for research purposes. With this program he supervised a series of 39 Aerobee rocket flights from the White Sands Missile range to investigate upper atmosphere emissions, aeronomic processes, and make astronomical observations over a period of about 10 years. He was also involved in the first attempts to establish a remotely controlled 50&rdquo telescope on Kitt Peak and efforts within the Division to create an Earth orbiting astronomical telescope. In parallel with these activities Lloyd conducted research which was largely focused on spectroscopic investigations. In the early days these included measurement of upper atmospheric emissions, particularly visual dayglow, the discovery of Raman lines in Uranus, Lightning spectrum, and auroral emissions. During this time he also pursued theoretical studies of resonant line transfer and some of the first modelling of the thermal structure of outer planet atmospheres. With the conclusion of the rocket program he turned his attention to high-resolution studies of the sun and cool stars and to long-term study of the variability of atmospheric pollutants (HCl, HF. CO2) over Kitt Peak. His solar and cool star studies led to the production of several high-resolution digital atlases extending from the UV to the thermal IR, and in addition, studies of line variability and the molecular content of sunspots. Lloyd was a very private and genuine person, but with a very sharp wit. He was highly productive with 135 published papers bearing his name.
A man of diverse interests and avid curiosity, Raúl A. Baragiola, the Alice and Guy Wilson Chair Professor of Materials Science at the University of Virginia, passed away 21 June 2015, only few months after his seventieth birthday. Raúl began his career at the Balseiro Institute in Bariloche, Argentina, studying electron emission from solid materials, later expanding his expertise to ion, electron, and photon interactions with surfaces. His interest in the surface properties of semi-conductors and insulators led him to the field of Space and Planetary Science, where for the last 25 years he studied the interaction of radiation with condensed ices, minerals, and extraterrestrial materials.
Claudia J. Alexander (1959–2015), Ph.D. was a research scientist specializing in geophysics 
Stanton J. Peale passed away on May 14, 2015 in Santa Barbara from complications of leukemia. He was 78. Stan was surrounded by family and friends prior to and during his passing. He was a kind and brilliant planetary scientist with expertise in dynamics and geophysics. His career spanned over five decades. After earning his PhD at Cornell University in 1965, he took a faculty position at the University of California, Los Angeles, and then at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he worked from 1968 until 2015. His most recent work was submitted for publication on May 11, 2015. His contributions include the prediction of widespread volcanism on Jupiter’s moon Io, the derivation of a general theoretical framework that governs the rotational states of bodies subject to tides, the study of tidal evolution in satellite systems, and the development of an ingenious procedure to determine the size and state of Mercury’s core. He was also a pioneer in the study of extrasolar planets, both in terms of their dynamics and their detection by microlensing. Stan’s work illustrated the power of physics to probe the interiors of planets. Stan was awarded the Newcomb Cleveland Prize (1979), the James Craig Watson Medal (1982), and the Brouwer Award (1992). He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009. He was a wonderful, beloved colleague and will be deeply missed.
It is with great sadness that we report the loss of our colleague, Dr. Arvydas Kliore, who died suddenly on December 7, 2014 of natural causes. Arv was born in Lithuania and immigrated to the United States in 1949. He joined the engineering staff at JPL in 1962, where he had a distinguished career for over half a century with numerous publications and awards. A JPL Senior Research Scientist for more than 25 years, he was a pioneer in planetary radio science, especially in the study of planetary atmospheres and ionospheres, beginning with the first NASA planetary mission. Arv was a principalinvestigator or team member on every Mariner mission, on Pioneer 10/11, and on Pioneer Venus, and he served as Deputy Team Leader for the Galileo Radio Propagation Science Team. Most recently, he was a member of the Cassini Radio Science Team from 1990, serving as team leader for more than 20 years. Over his career, Arv attended nearly every DPS meeting in its 47-year history, a testament to his remarkable level of dedication and commitment to the community of planetary scientists.
Dr. Alberto Behar, a long-time researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died January, 9, 2015 in a small-plane accident near Van Nuys, CA.