This award will help support a symposium focused on Planetary Impacts and the Physics of Planetary Interiors. The symposium is organized in honor and recognition of Prof. Tom Ahrens' retirement from Caltech and his many and varied contributions to the field of mineral physics. Prof. Ahrens, with his students and colleagues in the Lindhurst Laboratory of Experimental Geophysics, has been actively conducting research on the high-pressure properties of minerals of the Earth and planetary interiors, as well as impact effects on planetary surfaces, such as production of craters, accretion of the planets, and formation of magma oceans overlain by primitive atmospheres. Ahrens' group has pioneered the use of optical radiation versus time at a series of wavelengths to directly determine shock temperatures. The recent detection of the postperovskite phase in the lowermost mantle has generated a lot of excitement within the mineral physics and the seismological communities, and the symposium should bring about much lively and interesting discussion.
The program for the symposium reflects Prof. Ahrens' broad research interests ranging from the origin, differentiation and evolution of the Earth and planets to laboratory and spacecraft-based measurements of the physical properties of planetary materials to impact processes on planetary surfaces and atmospheres. The symposium features a balance of junior and senior speakers, including some of Prof Ahrens' most recent students and postdocs.
