News

Announcement of 2022 McKay and Wiley Awards More…

Announcements about nominations for Meteoritical Society Awards More…

Sarah Sutton, currently a postdoctoral scientist at the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA, is awarded the 2022 Pellas-Ryder Award for her paper titled "Sinuous channels east of Olympus Mons, Mars: Implications for volcanic, hydrological, and tectonic processes" published in Icarus in 2022. Sarah received her PhD from the University of Arizona in 2020 and continues to work there as a photogrammetry and image processing scientist. Sarah examined the channels and fossae on the volcanic plains east of Olympus Mons, Mars, to determine their origin by volcanic or fluvial processes using HiRISE and CTX data. She found that the channels displayed three types of morphologies: two of these types were consistent with lava channels, while the third type was consistent with a fluvial origin "likely sourced from erupted groundwater that entrained regolith in lahar-like flows". Her studies of the fossae revealed surface fractures linked to dike and sill emplacement. Her paper was commended for being detailed, well-organized and clearly illustrated, and for providing such detailed insights into martian geology using cross-cutting relations. The Pellas-Ryder Award is jointly sponsored by The Meteoritical Society and the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America. Sarah Sutton will receive a certificate at the Geological Society of America's Annual Meeting in Denver, USA. More…

Gareth Collins (Imperial College of London) and Kai Wünnemann (Germany) are jointly awarded the Barringer Award for 2022 for their collaborative development of the iSALE hydrocode and their influential scientific work in understanding and simulating the physics of impact crater formation. More…

Prof. Arya Udry of the University of Nevada Las Vegas has been selected for the 2022 Nier Prize for her significant contributions in the petrology and chemistry of martian meteorites, for advancing our understanding of the crystallization sequences of martian magmas and for being an effective public communicator of the science. More…

Dr. Randy L. Korotev, Emeritus Research Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University St. Louis, has been selected for the 2022 Service Award of the Meteoritical Society. Dr. Korotev was selected for his contributions to the classification of lunar meteorites, for his creation and operation of the "go-to" website for lunar meteorites and for his public outreach and education efforts in meteorites. More…

Prof. Kevin D. McKeegan, Dept. of Earth & Space Sciences, University of California Los Angeles has been named the 2022 Leonard Medalist of the Meteoritical Society. The announcement was made at the 84th Meteoritical Society Meeting held in Chicago, during its Business Meeting, August 18, 2021. More…

Hi everyone! I'd like to draw your attention to the Student and Early Career Travel Awards for MetSoc this year. A limited number of travel awards will be available to undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral members of The Meteoritical Society. The purpose of the financial support is to enable conference participation of early career researchers with limited sources of funding. Please go to: https://www.metsoc2021-chicago.com/travel-awards to check out eligibility, and for the application form. Any questions, please contact the Chair of the Travel Award Committee, Dr. Jemma Davidson: jdavidson at asu.edu. The deadline is June 4th, 2021, so don't delay! More…

Jan L. Hellmann, currently a postdoc at the Institut für Planetologie, University of Münster, Germany, is awarded the 2021 Pellas-Ryder Award for his paper titled “Origin of volatile element depletion among carbonaceous chondrites” published in Earth & Planetary Science Letters in 2020. Jan Hellmann was a PhD student at the Institut für Planetologie, University of Münster, working with Thorsten Kleine, when the paper was submitted. He analyzed the isotopic composition of tellurium, a moderately volatile element, in carbonaceous chondrites to find that mass-dependent Te isotope fractionation correlated with matrix mass fraction and nucleosynthetic chromium (Cr-54) isotope compositions. More…

Dr. Christian Koeberl (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, and University of Vienna) is awarded the Service Award for 2021 for his transformative decade-long tenure as Director General of the Naturhistorisches Museum during which the museum was extensively modernized and renovated resulting in a doubling of the number of visitors. He is also recognized for his tireless public outreach activities in meteoritics and impact cratering and impressive societal service contributions. More…