Awards

Kyla de Villa, a Ph.D. student in the Earth and Planetary Science Department at UC Berkeley, received the John C. Jamieson Student Paper Award in the 2024 Mineral and Rock Physics section.

Sara Seager, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, won the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, "for their ground-breaking work on the discovery and characterization of extra-solar planets and their atmospheres.”

For “distinguished contributions to Condensed Matter Physics, particularly for his seminal groundbreaking work in high energy density science of matter at extreme pressures.” This is the first time since 2009 that three faculty members have been elected in one year, as 2023 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Designation as an AAAS fellow is a distinguished lifetime honor within the scientific community.

Thomas Duffy, professor of geosciences at Princeton University, was awarded as an American Geophysical Union College of Fellows Distinguished Lecturer in 2023-24, in Earth Interior, Mineral and Rock Physics for his abstract, "Journey to the Center of a Super-Earth." He was also selected as a 2023 Mercator Fellow in the Matter Under Planetary Interior Conditions Research Unit by the German Research Foundation.

Ian Ocampo, a graduate student in the High-Pressure Mineral Physics Laboratory at Princeton University, has been awarded the 2023-24 Charlotte Elizabeth Procter Fellowship.

Danae Polsin, a scientist in the High-Energy-Density Experimental Physics Group at the Laser Laboratory for Energetics and an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester, received the 2023 Outstanding Young Alum Award from the SUNY Geneseo Alumni Association.

For her leadership in the fields of astrophysics and planetary science and as a leader in the field of exoplanet atmospheres, Sara Seager received a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto in June 2023.

Maureen Zhang, a CMAP Research Experience for High Schoolers (REH) program alumna, won 2nd place in the category of physics and astronomy at ISEF Regeneron 2023, a highly competitive international science competition for high school students with nearly 3,000 student attendees. M. Zhang presented a machine learning project to determine the number of exoplanets in planetary systems.

Jessica Shang, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester was selected as a 2022 Rochester Engineering Society Young Engineer of the Year Finalist.