Pellas-Ryder Award

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
2024	Ren Marquez	Caltech	The Astrophysical Journal Letters	2024, 961, L15	Snapshots of an Evolving Solar Nebula Recorded in Nucleosynthetic Sr and Ba Signatures of Early Condensates
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