We are delighted to announce the selections for the 2026 Pellas-Ryder Award. This award is jointly sponsored by the Meteoritical Society and the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America and honors outstanding first author planetary science papers by students.
Lucia Bellino, who is a graduate student at Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA, is the winner of the 2026 Pellas-Ryder Award for the paper entitled “Volcanic emission of reduced sulfur species shaped the climate of early Mars” published in Science Advances. This paper reports new modeling of sulfur cycling in evolving Martian magmatic systems and challenges assumptions of the existing literature. By modeling complex interactions in evolving magmatic systems, the authors demonstrate that sulfur degassing was likely dominated by H2S and S2 , as opposed to the previously modeled SO2. The paper motivated these new conclusions with observations of martian lithologies from Curiosity. The committee particularly praised the excellent discussion section of the paper, and the thorough assessment of the implications of this new sulfur speciation on the climate of early Mars.
Congratulations to the 2026 winner for this highly deserved honor and for leading This impressive study! We also thank everyone who submitted nomination packages and the Pellas-Ryder Award Committee for their work to make this award possible.
Based on a report submitted by: Lauren Jozwiak, 2026 Pellas-Ryder Award Committee Chair