Monday minute: Discussions and the decadal survey

Here’s an interesting look inside the Planetary Science Decadal Survey report, written by panel member Kunio M. Sayanagi: Planetary Exploration 2013-2022: Scientists are ready, what about you?  In related news, we’ve seen several exhortations recently for scientists to lobby Congress for increased science funding for missions,

Managing Life (or how you might manage to stay somewhat sane)

How often do you feel like you have little to no time to do the things you want to do — or rather, how often do you have the energy to do the things that you *want* to do in the little “free” time that you can scrounge up?

Britney Schmidt: Work on what you love

Dr. Britney Schmidt is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Geophysics of the University of Texas at Austin (UTIG) working on ice penetrating radar to study geophysical evolution of ices on Europa and in Antarctica. She received her Ph.D. studying large asteroids with observations and models, especially potentially icy asteroids from UCLA. 

Her most recent publications include studies of Triton, Ceres, Vesta and Themis: 

Flexibility: what’s your backup plan?

Professor Jim Elliot passed away at the beginning of March.  A meticulous researcher, engaging advisor, and good friend, James Ludlow Elliot was known for discovering the rings of Uranus, studying the Kuiper Belt through stellar occultations, and being a stalwart proponent of women in planetary science.  Obituaries appeared in the New York Times, Sky & Telescope, and on the MIT News site commemorating his contributions to the field of planetary astronomy.  Jim, we’ll miss you, your mentorship, and your love of teaching.  His passing will be marked in June with a “Jimboree”, a celebration of his life and research accomplishments.  Leave a note in the comments if you’d like more information about the memorial.

Amanda Hendrix, Cassini/Huygens DPS

Dr. Amanda R. Hendrix is a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is the deputy project scientist for the Cassini/Huygens mission at Saturn. Her research focuses on ultraviolet spectroscopy of solar system surfaces; she is most interested in weathering processes and effects on both icy and non-icy surfaces. She has been a participating scientist on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, 

DPS Prize Deadline: April 4

AAS DPS members, don’t forget the April 4 deadline for nominating your colleagues for the Kuiper, Urey, Masursky, Sagan, and Eberhart awards.  For more information and a description of each award, please visit  http://dps.aas.org/prizes/nomination_form.

First image from Mercury’s orbit

APL reports: “Early this morning, at 5:20 am EDT, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System’s innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before

What jobs can you get with a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science?

Post contributed by Matthew Pritchard, Associate Professor in Earth and Planetary Sciences at Cornell.

What jobs can you get with a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science?

You would think that universities would be able to easily answer this question, but actually not many track what their graduate student alumni in different subfields are doing 5, 10, or 20 years after they graduate. I find the lack of information frustrating as I try to advise undergraduate and graduate students about career options.

I think most students are getting a biased perspective on what our alumni really do

Women’s History Month

Several people have sent me a photo of NASA’s Women’s History Month Celebration recently, expressing dismay at the images NASA and the White House chose to represent women inspiring the next generation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and to launch the new Women@NASA website. They object to the skimpy outfits, to the emphasis on cheerleading, and they wonder how this happened. I don’t know. But I do know one thing:

To change your name or not to change your name: Options for married scientists.

“A rose by any other name…”  Romeo and Juliet, Shakespere

What’s in a name?  This question has come to my mind a lot recently since attending LPSC.  There I noticed a lot more people with hyphenated last names, and not all of them women.  It started me wondering about my last name. 

Monday Minute

New research on women in science shows that even a single “objectifying gaze” can affect a woman’s subsequent performance on mathematical tasks.

Go, MESSENGER, go!

On Thursday night, 17 March 2011, MESSENGER went into orbit around Mercury after a 6.5 year cruise.  MESSENGER Deputy Project Scientist Louise Prockter was onsite, briefing those assembled at APL on science results from the first three flybys and discussing future findings.