The Pellas-Ryder Award, jointly sponsored by the Meteoritical Society and the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America, is for undergraduate and graduate students who are first author of a planetary science paper published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Any first author of a paper published on a topic listed on the cover of Meteoritics and Planetary Science who was a student when the paper was submitted is eligible for consideration for the award. The award was first given in 2002, and honors the memories of meteoriticist Paul Pellas and lunar scientist Graham Ryder.
Members are strongly urged to nominate candidates for the Pellas-Ryder Award. Yearly nomination deadline: January 31. The procedures for nominations may be found in the Pellas-Ryder Award Committee bylaws and rules.
Learn more: Pellas-Ryder Award Committee
| Award Year | Winner | Institution | Journal | Year, Vol, Pages | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Alexander Kling |
Purdue University |
Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
2025, 651, 119178 |
Nanoscale reservoirs store solar wind-derived water on the lunar surface | |
|
Ian Pamerleau |
Purdue University |
Nature Astronomy |
2024, 8, 1373 |
An ancient and impure frozen ocean on Ceres implied by its ice-rich crust | |
|
Ren Marquez |
Caltech |
The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
2024, 961, L15 |
||
| 2023 | Hui Ching Jupiter Cheng | University of Georgia | Journal of Structural Geology | 2022, 161, 104677 | Structural relationships in and around the Rheasilvia basin on Vesta |
| 2023 | C. Adeene Denton | Purdue University | Geophysical Research Letters | 2022, 49, e2022GL100516 | Tracking the evolution of an ocean within Mimas using the Herschel impact basin |
| 2022 | Sarah Sutton | University of Arizona | Icarus | 2022, 374, 114798 | Sinuous channels east of Olympus Mons, Mars: Implications for volcanic, hydrological, and tectonic processes |
| 2021 | Jan L. Hellmann | Institut für Planetologie, University of Münster, Germany | Earth and Planetary Science Letters | 2020, 549, 116508 | Origin of volatile element depletion among carbonaceous chondrites |
| 2020 | Sabina Raducan | Imperial College, London | Icarus | 2019, 329:282-295 | The role of asteroid strength, porosity and internal friction in impact momentum transfer |
| 2019 | Simon J. Lock | Harvard University | Journal of Geophysical Research Planets | 2018, 123, 910-951 | The Origin of the Moon within a Terrestrial Synestia |
| 2018 | Worsham, Emily | University of Maryland | Earth and Planetary Science Letters | 2017, 467, 157-166 | Characterizing cosmochemical materials with genetic affinities to the Earth: Genetic and chronological diversity within the IAB iron meteorite complex |
| 2017 | Budde, Gerrit | Wilhelms-Universität Münster Germany | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2016, 113, 2886–2891 | Tungsten isotopic constraints on the age and origin of chondrules |
| 2017 | Keane, James | University of Arizona | Nature | 2016, 540(7631), 90-93 | Reorientation and faulting of Pluto due to volatile loading within Sputnik Planitia |
| 2016 | Hanna, Romy | University of Texas, Austin | Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta | 2015, 171, 256-282 | Impact-induced brittle deformation, porosity loss, and aqueous alteration in the Murchison CM chondrite |
| 2016 | Harrison, Tanya | University of Western Ontario | Icarus | 2015, 252, 236-254 | Global documentation of gullies with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera and implications for their formation |
| 2015 | Battaglia, Steven | Northern Illinois Univ. | |||
| 2014 | Beitz, Eike | Technische Universität Braunschweig | Icarus | 2013, 225, 558-569 | Experiments on the consolidation of chondrites and the formation of dense rims around chondrules |
| 2013 | Burkhardt, Christoph | ETH Zurich | Earth Planetary Science Letters | 2012, 357-358, 298-307 | Origin of isotopic heterogeneity in the solar nebula by thermal processing and mixing of nebular dust |
| 2012 | Patthoff, Alex | Univ. Idaho | Geophysical Research Letters | 2011, 38, L18201 | A fracture history on Enceladus provides evidence for a global ocean |
| 2011 | Beck, Andrew W. | Univ. Tennessee | Meteoritics and Planetary Science | 2010, 45, 850-872 | Diogenites as polymict breccias composed of orthopyroxenite and harzburgite |
| 2010 | Reddy, Vishnu | Univ. North Dakota | MAPS | 2009, 44, 1917-1927 | Composition of 298 Baptistina: Implications for the K/T impactor link |
| 2009 | Ehlmann, Bethany | Brown University | Science | 2008, 322, 1828-1832 | Orbital identification of carbonate-bearing rocks on Mars |
| 2008 | Touboul, Matthieu | ETH | Nature | 2007, 450, 1206-1209 | Late formation and prolonged differentiation of the Moon inferred from W isotopes in lunar metals |
| 2007 | Richardson, James E. Jr. | Univ. Arizona | Icarus | 2005, 179, 325-349 | The global effects of impact-induced seismic activity on fractured asteroid surface morphology |
| 2007* | Toppani, Alice | CRPG-CNRS | GCA | 2006, 70, 5035-5060 | Laboratory condensation of refractory dust in protosolar and circumstellar conditions |
| 2006 | Wyrick, Danielle | Univ. Texas, San Antonio | JGR-Planets | 2004, 109, E06005 | Distribution, Morphology and Origins of Martian Pit Crater Chains |
| 2005 | Itoh, Soichi | Tokyo Inst. Tech. | Nature | 2003, 423, 728-731 | Contemporaneous formation of chondrules and refractory inclusions in the early Solar System |
| 2004 | Dauphas, Nicolas | CRPG-CNRS | Astrophys. J. | 2002, 565, 640-644 | Molybdenum evidence for inherited planetary scale isotope heterogeneity in the protosolar nebula |
| 2003 | Davidsson, Björn | Uppsala University | Icarus | 2001, 149, 375-383 | Tidal splitting and rotational breakup of solid biaxial ellipsoids |
| 2002 | Johnson, Natasha | Washington Univ. | Icarus | 2000, 146, 301-306 | Water on Venus: New Insights from Tremolite Decomposition |
* Timing of award adjusted by presenting two in same year