UWAB At a Glance – Fall 2019

Please join us in congratulating our latest batch of graduates and wish them well as they move on to their next endeavors:

---

Please join with us in welcoming our newest students who entered the UW Astrobiology Program this fall:

---

Meanwhile the rest of the members of the Astrobiology Program have been hard at work and several have been recognized for their efforts and impacts to the field:

• Prof. Roger Buick (ESS) has been elected as a Fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA)! GSA Fellowships recognize a sustained record of distinguished contributions to the geosciences and to the GSA.
• Prof. Victoria Meadows (Astronomy) was nominated to serve as the Science Panel Chair on Exoplanets, Astrobiology and the Solar System for the National Academy of Sciences Astro2020 Decadal Review.
• Prof. Eric Agol (Astro) was awarded 4.5 days of observation time with the Spitzer Space Telescope later this year to conduct observations of TRAPPIST-1 system in order to better characterize the masses of the planets, and to improve our prediction for future JWST observations. Co-investigators include UWAB alumni Brett Morris (Astro).
• Grad student Marshall Styczinski (Physics) was recently appointed as an Affiliate for the Europa Clipper Science Team. They’ll now be officially involved in planning and analysis for the Europa Clipper mission, including attending the Project Science Group meeting in Ithaca, NY next month!
• Grad student Lucas Fifer (ESS) was awarded the Robert and Jenny Winglee Endowed Grad Support Fund AND Space Physics Fellowship Support
• Grad student Addien Wray (ESS) was awarded the Inquisitive Graduate Student Support Fund AND ExxonMobil Graduate Student Support Fund & Peter Misch Fellowship
• Grad student Andrew Shumway (ESS) was awarded the Howard A. and Leila Coombs Endowed Fellowship
• Prior to graduating this year, Michael Kipp (ESS) was awarded the David A. Johnston Award for Research Excellence (This is the most prestigious award for graduate students in the Earth & Space Sciences Deptartment). He follows Josh Krissansen-Totton, a recent UWAB graduate, who won it last year!
• Alum Nathan Kaib (Graduate Certificate, 2010) received an NSF CAREER award to model planet formation in our solar system as well as within binary star systems! You can read more about the award here
• Alum Elena Amador (Dual-Title PhD, 2017) finished up her 2 year postdoc at Caltech and has now been hired as a systems engineer at JPL! Elena will be joining the Mars Science Laboratory’s Science Operations Team and will help run the day to day science operations for the rover, acting as a liaison between the team scientists and the engineers.
• Grad student Eliah Overbey (Genome Sciences) attended the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research’s annual meeting. Here she presented research on her recent publications studying gene expression in the retinas of mice that were flown on the International Space Station and how to simulate spaceflight stressors in Earth-based analog models. Her research was awarded the Student Investigator Spaceflight Award from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS).