The winners of the 2017 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.

Katherine de Kleer of the University of California, Berkeley will receive the award for a US-based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting outside the U.S. Her research title is “The Impact of Io’s Volcanism on the Jovian Extended Neutral Environment” and she will be attending the joint Japan Geoscience Union – American Geophysical Union meeting in Chiba, Japan May 20-25, 2017.

Frances Butcher of the Open University in the United Kingdom will receive the award for a non-U.S. based graduate student traveling to a planetary meeting in the U.S. Her research title is “Eskers Associated with Extant Glaciers in Mid-Latitude Graben on Mars: Evidence for Geothermal Controls upon Recent Basal Melting of Glaciers on Mars” and she will be attending the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas March 20-24, 2017.

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

Visit http://www.psi.edu/news/2017pierazzo  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: http://www.psi.edu/support/pierazzofund 

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