On Sunday July 27, about 100 Planetary Science Institute members gathered at the Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort in Tucson, Ariz. for the 2025 retreat, a multi-day gathering for reconnection, collaboration, strategic planning and fun.
On Monday morning, PSI Director Amanda Hendrix thanked Office Manager Kimberly Foote for organizing a fantastic retreat and updated attendees on the state of PSI.
She announced new corporate staff members including:
- Public Information Officer Mikayla Kelley
- Deputy Human Resources Director Adelina Craig
- Information Technology Director Eric Palmer
- Administrative Assistant for Proposal Support Tamara Denny
Hendrix announced new arrivals since the last retreat:
- Bobby Bus, senior scientist
- Ping Wang, research scientist
- Nandita Kumari, associate research scientist
- Matthew Huber, associate research scientist
- Jenny Larson, associate research scientist
- Claire Mondro, associate research scientist
- Laura Breitenfeld, associate research scientist
- Liza Kovaleva, associate research scientist
- Jason Batt, research associate
- Amanda Nonomura, research associate
- Larry Horvath, senior research associate
- Megan Dwyer, research assistant
- Phoenix Walker, junior research assistant
- Zach Bain, research assistant*
- Karly Pitman, senior scientist*
- Sarah Black, research scientist*
*Returning PSI members
Hendrix also recognized a few scientists who have received major awards over the last year. This included Senior Scientist Roger Clark, who was named a AAAS Fellow, Senior Scientist Darby Dyar, who earned the Mineralogical Society of America Roebling Award and Senior Education and Communication Specialist and Senior Scientist Sanlyn Buxner, who was selected as the AGU’s next education section president.
Then, she dove into PSI’s finances.
“PSI is going strong, but these are turbulent times, and there’s a need to vary our sources of income beyond federal grants,” Hendrix said. This kickstarted a conversation that continued during a later strategic planning session.
Associate Director Than Putzig announced that the Colorado office, which he leads, celebrated their nine-year anniversary. He also highlighted the Colorado office’s current research involvement on projects such as HiRISE and SHARAD, the VenSAR Participating Scientist Program, NASA’s SMD special project dubbed Subsurface Water Mapping on Mars – or SWIM, as well as other research and analysis projects.
Kelley announced that website updates are underway and invited PSI scientists and staff to provide feedback on the changes. The goal of the new website is to clearly communicate who we are and what we do externally, as well as to serve PSI scientists internally.
Palmer then summarized his vision for IT’s future. His strategic goals are to provide a stable and secure environment that supports success and to leverage technology to maximize productivity. Palmer reminded the staff that all critical functions were repaired or replaced after a failure two years ago, and the focus now is on optimizing systems and processes.
“Some of the biggest strengths of PSI are its wonderful sense of community and culture of sharing and support,” Hendrix said. “The current situation in Washington results in uncertainty for science funding, and that’s why this year more than ever, it was wonderful to come together to share our science, discuss collaborations, and enjoy each other’s company. The federal funding environment means that we’ll need to both strongly advocate for strong federal science funding and work to diversify PSI funding sources for our scientists; but we’ll get through this, and in fact we have lots to celebrate!”
Hendrix closed the session with celebrations for recent birthdays, including those of Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist JA Grier, Senior Scientist Nalin Samarasinha, Associate Research Scientist Jack Conrad and Board of Trustees Chair Scott Fouse, and recognizing those who have been with PSI for 20 years or more, including:
- Senior Scientist Emeritus and PSI’s First Director Don Davis (1972)
- Senior Scientist Emeritus William K. Hartmann (1972)
- Senior Scientist Emeritus Stu Weidenschilling (1978)
- Proposal Support Elaine Owens (1990)
- Senior Research Associate Carol Neese (1992)
- Sponsored Projects Manager Kelly Yoder (1996)
- Senior Scientist Dan Berman (1998)
- Senior Scientist and Senior Education and Communication Specialist JA Grier (1999)
- Senior Scientist Cathy Weitz (2000)
- Senior Scientist David Crown (2001)
- Senior Scientist Asmin “Oz” Pathare (2003)
- Senior Research Associate and Licensed Software Specialist Frank Chuang (2003)
- Senior Scientist and Former Director Mark Sykes (2003)
- Senior Scientist Bea Mueller (2004)
- Senior Scientist Nalin Samarasinha (2004)
- Senior Scientist David O’Brien (2005)
- Senior Scientist Becky Williams (2005)