2018 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award Winners Announced

Tucson, Ariz. -- The winners of the 2018 Pierazzo International Student Travel Award established by the Planetary Science Institute have been selected. 

The Pierazzo International Student Travel Award was established by PSI in memory of Senior Scientist Betty Pierazzo to support and encourage graduate students to build international collaborations and relationships in planetary science. 

Gregory J. Gilbert of the University of Chicago will receive the award for a U.S.-based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting outside of the U.S. His research title is "A Universal Framework for Classifying Exoplanet Systems" and he will be attending the Exoplanets II conference at Cambridge, the United Kingdom, July 2-6, 2018. 

Lauren Mc Keown of Trinity College Dublin will receive the award for a non-U.S.-based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting within the U.S. Her research title is "A Quantitative Comparison Between Theory And Experiment for CO2 Sublimation on a Granular Surface under Terrestrial and Martian Conditions" and she will be attending the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, March 19-23, 2018. 

A PSI representative will present each awardee with a certificate and check for $2,000 at their respective conferences. 

Visit https://www.psi.edu/news/2018pierazzo to view photos of the winners. 

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. 

To contribute to the Betty Pierazzo Memorial fund, please go to: https://www.psi.edu/support/pierazzofund 

To learn more about Betty Pierazzo please go to: https://www.psi.edu/about/memorial/betty.html