News

I am sad to report that our friend and colleague Klaus Keil passed away peacefully Friday night at home after a long battle with cancer. He was Emeritus Professor, former Director of the Hawai`i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, and former Interim Dean of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. Klaus was an outstanding scientist, spectacular mentor, educator, and leader, dedicated family man, and enthusiastic tennis player. His academic and science leadership skills glittered at the University of Hawai`i since 1990 and at the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico from 1968 to 1990. He was 87 years old. Klaus was a pioneer in the use of the electron microprobe in meteoritics and in petrology and mineralogy in general. In the early 1960s, he worked with colleagues at NASA Ames Research Center, Ray Fitzgerald and Kurt Heinrich, to make the first energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer for use in microanalysis. This device was the first to focus on terrestrial and extraterrestrial geological materials, and the first to use a solid-state lithium-drifted Si detector. Over his long and illustrious career, Klaus studied practically every type of meteorite and lunar sample, addressing big problems in planetary science, from chondrule formation to pyroclastic eruptions on the Moon and achondritic bodies, from asteroid disruption to the composition of the Martian surface. More…

We are happy to release the first Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for Ryugu samples in the following URL; [https://jaxa-ryugu-sample-ao.net/], and Ryugu sample catalog now available online as follows; [https://darts.isas.jaxa.jp/curation/hayabusa2/]. As mentioned in the top page of the AO, the notice of intent to propose is due in mid-March, and registration and longin page will be available soon. Please enjoy the Ryugu sample catalog and consider your research proposal based on the information described in the guidebook [https://jaxa-ryugu-sample-ao.net/files/guidebook.pdf]. We are looking forward to having fruitful research proposals from you! More…

An eminent pioneer of noble gas geochemistry, Peter Signer, emeritus professor at ETH (Switzerland) died on Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. After a long illness, he peacefully fell asleep at the age of 92. Following his dissertation at the University of Bern on a mass spectrometric study of the 176Lu decay constant with Friedrich Houtermans and a seven-year stay with Alfred O. Nier at the University of Minnesota, Peter Signer was appointed professor for Geo- and Cosmochronology at ETH Zurich in 1965. He founded the Laboratory for Noble Gas Mass Spectrometry, which he led until his retirement in 1994 and which is now headed by Henner Busemann in the third generation. 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…

Its with great sadness that we announce the sudden death of Ed Scott on October 7. Edward Robert Dalton Scott was born on 22 March 1947 in Heswall, England, and died suddenly on 7 October 2021 in San Rafael, California at the age of 74. He is survived by his wife Anneliese Sullivan Scott, his two daughters, Victoria and Rosemarie, and grandchildren Theo, Octavia, and Fiona. Ed was a superb scientist with deep curiosity about the Solar System and its origin, coupled with disarming modesty, a positive personality, a subtle sense of humor, and exceptional kindness. He will be missed. More…

The Extraterrestrial Materials Analysis Group (ExMAG) will meet virtually on October 14–15, 2021, from 11am-5 pm EDT. There is no registration fee but registration is required by October 11, 2021. The Fall meeting will focus on sample return missions and technologies, sample collections, facilities and informatics, and advanced analysis and curation methods. We invite Early-Career members of the sample analysis community (students, postdocs, and those within 10 years of their terminal degree) to have Coffee with the ExMAG Chair on October 14 from 10-11 am EDT, an informal hour to learn about ExMAG and talk about issues important to you. A virtual poster session to view Facilities posters will be held in Gather.town on October 15 from 10-11 am EDT. The list of posters will be posted on the agenda page. Registered attendees will receive an e-mail from Houston Meeting Info prior to the meeting with connection information for all events. More information and agenda are at https://www.lpi.usra.edu/exmag/meetings/exmagfall2021/ 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…

The call for sessions and workshops for Goldschmidt 2022 in Hawaii is now open. We invite the community to consider submitting a session 1 under Theme 1 Solar Systems and Planets: The goal of this theme is to bring together cosmochemistry, geodynamical, and astronomical contributions about how the bodies in our Solar System and in exoplanetary systems formed and evolved through time. Topics of interest include pre-solar chemistry, protoplanetary disks and the origins of chondrules, planetary accretion and planetesimal growth, planetary collisions and volatile transfer, planetary differentiation (including the Earth) and planetary crust formation, late accretion and impacts, and magmatic processes. We seek sessions that bring together different methodologies, including analysis of extraterrestrial materials, experiments and numerical modelling, and results from planetary missions. More…