This award is being co-sponsored by the Division of Earth Sciences (GEO Directorate) and the Division of Astronomical Sciences (MPS Directorate) to partially support the attendance of 15 early-career astronomers, planetary scientists and earth scientists to attend the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, July 26-30, 2010 in New York City. The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit, non-academic scholarly professional society founded (1933) and largely based in the US that is directly associated with educational and research activities. The Society publishes Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
This meeting will bring together experts in diverse fields to discuss recent research findings as well as strategies for education on topics related to the origins of solar systems, and the formation and evolution of planets. This proposal will enhance the scientific richness of the Meteoritical Society annual meeting by extending participation to allied fields of earth and planetary sciences and astronomical sciences. Funding will facilitate the participation of early career U.S. investigators from allied sciences who might not otherwise attend. Crossover topics for the conference will include planetary disk modeling and observation, asteroid dynamics and composition, planetary astronomy, as well as planetary processes such as basaltic volcanism, core formation, planetary magnetic fields, and impact studies. Instrumentation and computational infrastructure are additional cross-disciplinary topics. These topics are all close to the intellectual heart of both the Astronomical Sciences (particularly planetary and stellar astronomy) and Earth Sciences programs at NSF. Educationally synergistic activities in the New York area are under development with the American Museum of Natural History, a sponsoring institution for this conference
This project provided partial subsistence for 15 early-career astronomers, planetary scientists and Earth scientists to attend the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, July 26-30, 2010 in New York City. The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit, non-academic scholarly professional society founded (1933) and largely based in the US that is directly associated with educational and research activities. The Society publishes a journal, Meteoritics and Planetary Science. This meeting brought together experts in diverse fields to discuss recent research findings as well as strategies for education on topics related to the origins of solar systems, and the formation and evolution of planets. Attendance by young scientists at meetings fosters research collaboration, sharing of information, and cross-disciplinary educational efforts. Strong international attendance is a big part of this meeting, which is held in North America every other year. This project supported attendance by US citizens studying at US institutions or overseas, and by foreign nationals studying at US institutions. This support broadened the attendance to allied disciplines of Astronomy and Earth Scientists. Astronomers model and observe disks where planets are forming, explore the dynamics of asteroid orbits, and try to understand planets around other stars. Earth Scientists study planetary processes such as volcanism, core formation, the origin of planetary magnetic fields, and meteorite impacts onto planets (including their effects on terrestrial life). Over 440 scientific abstracts were submitted, a new record for this meeting. Of 434 registered scientific attendees to the meeting, 115 were students, and a total of 59 were awarded some form of travel support. Over 180 non-US attendees represented 20 countries. Research results were described in 216 15-minute oral presentations, and over 220 poster presentations. The lead scientist of the MESSENGER mission to Mercury gave a free, public lecture at the American Museum of Natural History. Altogether, this was a successful US meeting of a vibrant international scientific society. Science quality was very high, and attendance was near record-breaking. The support of the NSF for travel support of young scientists was an important part of this success.
