News

Prof. Keizo Yanai, a founder of Antarctic meteorite research, passed away on December 17, 2018, at the age of 77, in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, after several years of declining health. Keizo served many years as a curator at the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) of Japan where he collected and allocated thousands of Antarctic meteorites for our community. He was born on July 25, 1941, in Furudono, Fukushima, Japan. He received his B.S. from Akita University and his Ph.D. degree in petrology (Mesozoic igneous rocks) from Tohoku University. More…

Simon J. Lock, currently a postdoc at the California Institute of Technology, is awarded the 2019 Pellas-Ryder Award for his paper titled “The Origin of the Moon within a Terrestrial Synestia” published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets in 2018. Simon Lock was a Ph.D student at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, working with Sarah T. Stewart (now at UC Davis), when the paper was submitted. More…

The McKay Award for the 81st Annual Meeting in Moscow is given to Timothy Gregory (University of Bristol) for the presentation " Using refractory forsterite grains to test models of 26Al/27Al heterogeniety". More…

Sponsored by the publisher of Meteoritics and Planetary Science, five Wiley Awards are given for outstanding oral presentations by students at the Annual Meeting. More…

Emily Worsham, currently a postdoc at the University of Muenster, is awarded the 2018 Pellas-Ryder award for her paper titled "Characterizing cosmochemical materials with genetic affinities to the Earth: Genetic and chronological diversity within the IAB iron meteorite complex," published in the Earth and Planetary Science Letters in 2017. More…

Friedrich Begemann passed away on May 11, at the age of 90. Friedrich (‘Fred’) was the director of the Isotope Cosmology Department at the Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie (MPI-C) in Mainz (Germany) from 1978 until his retirement in 1995 and the 1995 recipient of the Meteoritical Society’s Leonard Medal. More…

Dr. Christine Floss died unexpectedly at her home in St. Louis on April 19, 2018, at age 56. She is deeply missed by her family, friends, and colleagues. Christine was a research professor in the Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Christine was a long-time member and a fellow of the Meteoritical Society. She was an expert in the trace-element and isotopic analysis of planetary materials, meteorites, and presolar grains, studying the origin and evolution of the Solar System. She was a gifted and dedicated scientist and mentor, and an extraordinary colleague, collaborator, and friend to many in the cosmochemistry and planetary science community. More…

Those of us who have been in the Society more than 10 years will remember Ursula Marvin as a vibrant and enthusiastic member of the society who loved what she did and enjoyed the friendships it brought her (Fig. 1). She was one of the first researchers to discuss the Allende meteorite and its fascinating refractory inclusions, and she made important contributions to the study of lunar samples and to collecting and describing Antarctic meteorites. She also made unique contributions to recording the history of The Meteoritical Society and to the history of meteorite research. Ursula passed away on February 12th, 2018, at the age of 96. More…

Bob Clayton passed away on Dec. 30, 2017, after several years of declining health at his home in Michigan City, Indiana, surrounded by family. Bob was the Meteoritical Society’s 1982 Leonard Medalist. He was born on March 20, 1930, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Queen’s University, Ontario, and his Ph.D. from Caltech (1955) mentored by Samuel Epstein. He joined the Chemistry Department and the Enrico Fermi Institute (1958), and then the newly founded Department of Geophysical Sciences (1961) at The University of Chicago. He was the Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor until he retired in 2001, remaining active in emeritus status until about 2014. More…

Elmar K. Jessberger passed away on November 29, 2017, at the age of 74. Elmar was a Fellow of The Meteoritical Society since 1994 and chairman of the Leonard Medal Committee from 2001 to 2002. He was organizer of the Society’s 66th annual meeting 2003 in Münster. Main belt asteroid 16231 Jessberger, discovered in 2000, was named after him in 2005. More…