Sarah Henderson, winner of a 2023 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award, was presented with her prize at the European Geophysical Union conference in Vienna, Austria.
Henderson, of the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, Iowa, received a certificate and a check for $2,000 from PSI Senior Scientist Nader Haghighipour at the EGU-Planetary & Solar System Sciences Division awards dinner.
Henderson’s research title is “Influence of Magnetic Fields on Precipitating Solar Wind Hydrogen at Mars.” Henderson’s work explores the consequences of charge exchange collisions in the outer reaches of the Martian atmosphere, which were first detected by MAVEN, representing a source of energy to the Martian upper atmosphere with potentially significant chemical consequences, and producing a unique ultraviolet auroral emission.
Betty Pierazzo was an expert in the area of impact modeling throughout the solar system, as well as an expert on the astrobiological and environmental effects of impacts on Earth and Mars. In addition to her research, she was passionate about education, teaching and public outreach, developing planetary-related classroom materials, professional development workshops for teachers, and teaching college-level classes herself. Betty believed in the strength of broad collaborations in all of her research and education activities. This award memorializes the scope of how she lived her life and the good she sought to bring to our profession and communities.
From left, Steve Mojzsis (past president of the EGU division of planetary science), Annamaria Tosatto (chair of the city council of Noale, Italy, Betty Pierazzo’s home town where a school is dedicated to Betty), Flavio Pierazzo (Betty’s brother), Sarah Henderson, Nader Haghighipour, Anezina Solomonidou (current president of the EGU division of planetary science), and Athena Coustenis (winner of the EGU medal of science). Sarah Henderson is holding a copy of the book of the city of Noale.
