Inaugural Pierazzo International Student Travel Award Winners Announced

Tucson, Ariz. -- The winners of the 2014 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.

Jacob Richardson of the University of South Florida will receive the award for a United States-based graduate student to travel to a planetary-related meeting outside the United States. His research title is "LiDAR Observations of an Earth Magma Plumbing System as an Analog for Venus and Mars Distributed Volcanism" and he will attend the European Geophysical Union General Assembly in Vienna, Austria April 27 - May 2, 2014.

Jakob Deller of the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, and Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, German will receive the award for a non-U.S.-based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting in the U.S. His research title is "SPH Modeling of Impact Events on Non-Spherical Rubble-Pile Asteroid Simulants" and he will attend the 46th Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Tucson, Ariz. Nov. 9-14, 2014.

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

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/betty/contribute

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

To learn more about the Pierazzo International Student Travel award, go to:
https://www.psi.edu/pista

Information about the Planetary Science Institute may be found at:
https://www.psi.edu