News

June 2021

  • Postdoc Xinting Yu’s paper was recently published in The Astrophysics Journal! The paper can be found here, and an article about the paper in Universe Today can be found here.

May 2021

  • Graduate student Coby Abraham’s paper about using Europa Clipper to study Europa’s long-wavelength topography was accepted to Earth and Space Science. The preprint of the paper can be read here.

April 2021

  • Congratulations to graduate student Szilárd Gyalay for being accepted to the Planetary Science Summer School! PSSS, run by JPL, gives early-career scientists a chance to practice designing a planetary exploration mission.
  • Graduate student Maggie Thompson and Assistant Professor Myriam Telus are the first and second authors on a paper published in Nature Astronomy! The paper is titled “Composition of terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres from meteorite outgassing experiments,” and can be found here.

March 2021

  • Professor Ian Garrick-Bethell and Research Scientist Misha Kreslavsky were two of the nine scientists chosen by NASA to join the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter Mission. The mission, which will launch in 2022, will be the first lunar mission from South Korea. Click here for an article on the scientist selection.
  • Congratulations to graduate student Brynna Downey for being awarded an Honorable Mention Dwornik Award for her talk at LPSC! Click here for the list of awardees.

November 2020

  • Congratulations to Dr. Jack Conrad for successfully defending his dissertation! He will be starting a postdoctoral position at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
  • Professor Natalie Batalha of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Department will lead an interdisciplinary consortium for astrobiology research. Click here for the UCSC news release.

September 2020

June 2020

  • Congratulations to graduate student Brynna Downey for being awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Brynna’s work will involve the tidal-orbital evolution of Callisto, Titan, and other moons in our solar system.
  • Congratulations to graduate student Jack Conrad for being awarded a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship! Jack’s work will involve studying surface processes, geomorphology, and impact cratering with Caleb Fassett at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

May 2020

  • Congratulations to Dr. Carver Bierson for successfully defending his dissertation! He will be starting a postdoctoral position at Arizona State University.

April 2020

February 2020

  • Elizabeth Bailey, currently finishing a PhD at Caltech, will be joining the UCSC Astronomy and Astrophysics Department in the fall as a 51 Pegasi b Fellow. Click here for the UCSC news release.

March 2020

  • Congratulations to graduate student Maggie Thompson for being awarded a LPI Career Development Award! The funds from the award help cover expenses to the attend the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

January 2020

  • Congratulations to graduate student Carver Bierson for being awarded a postdoctoral position at Arizona State University! Carver will be studying the asteroid Psyche with Lindy Elkins-Tanton and Joe O’Rourke.

August 2019

  • Congratulations to Assistant Professor Xi Zhang for being awarded the 2019 Ronald Greeley Early Career Award from AGU’s Planetary Sciences section! Click here for the AGU news release.

March 2019

  • Xinting Yu, currently finishing a PhD at Johns Hopkins University, will be joining the UCSC Earth and Planetary Science Department in the fall as a 51 Pegasi b Fellow. Click here for the UCSC news release.

January 2019

  • Congratulations to Professor Francis Nimmo for being awarded the 2019 Harold Jeffreys Lectureship by the Royal Astronomical Society! Click here for the UCSC news release.

September 2018

  • Congratulations to Professor Francis Nimmo for being awarded the 2018 Paolo Farinella Prize by the Europlanet Society! Click here for the UCSC news release.

May 2018

  • Congratulations to graduate student Huazhi Ge for being awarded a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship! Huazhi’s work is titled “Tropospheric Dynamics of Jupiter: Insights from Tracer Distributions From Juno and Ground-based Observations.”

March 2018

  • UCSC Earth and Planetary Science graduate programs rank in the top 20 by US News and World Report! Click here for the UCSC news release.

March 2018

  • Congratulations to graduate student Megan Kelley for being awarded a LPI Career Development Award! The funds from the award help cover expenses to the attend the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

November 2017

  • UCSC ranks in the top 5 space science programs by US News and World Report! Click here for the UCSC news release.

May 2017

  • Congratulations to graduate student Nick Zube for being awarded a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship! Nick’s work is titled “Testing different accretion scenarios with the Hf/W isotopic system.”

November 2016

  • Professor Francis Nimmo’s research on Pluto’s subsurface structure is featured in a UCSC news center article! Click here to read the article and the paper that it references.

August 2016

  • Graduate student Michael Nayak’s research on Mars’ moon Phobos is featured in a UCSC news center article! Click here to read the article and here to read the paper it references.

May 2016

April 2016

  • Graduate Student Michael Nayak is featured in a UCSC news center article! Click here to read the article.

March 2016

  • Professor Francis Nimmo’s research on Pluto’s geology is featured in a UCSC news center article! Click here to read the article and here/here to read the two papers that it references.

December 2015

  • Congratulations to Assistant Professor Ian Garrick-Bethell for being awarded the 2015 Ronald Greeley Early Career Award from AGU’s Planetary Sciences section! Click here for the AGU news release.

July 2014

  • Assistant professor Ian Garrick-Bethell’s research on the Moon’s shape is featured in a UCSC news center article! Click here to read the article and here to read the paper it references.

July 2014

  • Professor Francis Nimmo’s research on the geysers of Enceladus is featured in a UCSC news center article! Click here to read the article and here/here to read the two papers it references.

February 2014

  • Congratulations to Assistant Professor Ian Garrick-Bethell for being awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship! Click here to read the UCSC news release.