News from the Department (2008)

Rosemary Killen, an Associate Research Scientist, discussed new discoveries derived from observations of sodium, calcium, and magnesium in the nightside and tail regions of Mercury's exosphere at the AGU Fall meeting, December 15-16. The MESSENGER presentations were made in three separate sessions, the first of which was webcast.

Prof. Sylvain Veilleux has won a Humboldt Research Award. This award goes to outstanding scientists and scholars from all disciplines whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future. Award winners are invited to spend a period of up to one year cooperating on a long-term research project with specialist colleagues at a research institution in Germany.

James Keane, a junior majoring in Astronomy, has been awarded the College Park Scholars prize for the best Scholars research project this past year (from a total of about 800 Scholars students in his cohort). He created his own map of HI in the galaxy by making two trips to use the 40-foot radio telescope at Green Bank and digitizing the resulting chart records.
Research Professor Lucy McFadden was one of three editors of the publication "Encyclopedia of the Solar System" which was selected by the GeoScience Information Society for the Mary B. Ansari Best Reference Work Award. The award was presented at the Society's annual meeting, October 7, in Houston, TX. She was also featured in the Concord Academy Alumni Magazine, Fall edition, with a story on her recent Antarctic adventures and mentioning her current project, DAWN, a NASA mission to asteroids between Jupiter and Mars.

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