Based on a Report submitted to the Endowment Committee by: Alycia Weinberger, Carnegie Institution for Science
The 16th Origins of Solar Systems Gordon Research Seminar “Constraining the Origin and
Evolution of Planetary Systems Through a Multidisciplinary Approach” (June 10-11, 2023
by and for early career researchers) and Gordon Research Conference “Chemical and
Dynamical Constraints on Planet Formation” (June 11-15) were held at Mt. Holyoke
College in Massachusetts. The conferences brought together diverse research
communities from meteoritics (cosmochemistry), planetary science, and astrophysics to
discuss planet formation and related topics of interest. A total of 193 people attended the
Conference, of whom 39% were graduate students and 24% were postdocs, which is a
substantially higher level of participation by early career researchers than at the previous
(2019) meeting (with approximately 40% students and postdocs). The attendance was
also substantially higher than we had anticipated. The Seminar reached capacity and had
to turn away attendees.
At the Conference, there were 154 posters presented and 22 invited talks. The MetSoc
grant funded partial registration and travel support for 4 graduate students (Nicola Allen of
ETH Zurich, Helen Grant of University of Manchester, Anna Hindrichs of Arizona State
University, and Matt Lodge of University of Bristol), and 1 postdoc (Simon Anghel of the
Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy). These early career researchers all
needed funding in order to be able to attend and all presented posters, and the support of the Meteoritical Society Endowment Fund for this activity was very appreciated.
Visit this webpage to learn more about grants supported by the Meteoritical Society Endowment Fund.
Official conference photo for the 2023 Origins of Solar Systems Gordon Research Conference. Credit: Alycia Weinberger