The first Ronald Greeley Early Career Award in Planetary Science is presented to Alex Hayes, an assistant professor of astronomy at Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. from Caltech and did a postdoc at Berkeley. His record is impressive, and he is very well suited to be the first Greeley Award winner; he has a mix of science and engineering experience and training, leading to special insights into how to best optimize use of spacecraft data to make scientific breakthroughs. Among a group of highly qualified nominees for the first Greeley Award, Alex’s accomplishments clearly stood out—he has already coauthored more than 40 papers.

Alex uses spacecraft-based remote sensing to study the properties of planetary surfaces and their interactions with the interior and atmospheres, with a recent focus on Titan and Mars. Titan is the only planetary object besides Earth that supports standing bodies of liquid on its surface. Alex uses the Cassini Radar to study and model surface morphologies on icy satellites, including the distribution and evolution of Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes and seas. His first paper became a common reference for Titan’s northern lake distribution because Alex carefully and systematically mapped their distribution and classified them into types that have now become standard. He is also interested in studying the depositional and diagenetic history of early Mars, leveraging data from the Mars Exploration rovers and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

But in fact, the best words I can use to describe Alex come from his nominators. Here is just a taste of what they had to say:
“Alex is unquestionably one of the most exciting new planetary science Ph.D.s in the world. He is particularly prominent in ­mission-­related science (as was Ron Greeley), notably the lakes and morphology of Titan. From personal experience, I can say that Alex is unusually interactive, insightful, and engaged on just about any issue having to do with planetary geology, especially morphology.”

“He has an unquenchable curiosity, performs to the highest standards that one can expect, and will unquestionably emerge as one of most influential planetary scientists of his generation. While his natural abilities are all very strong, perhaps his most notable attribute is his tenacious drive to learn.”

“In addition to Alex’s accomplishments, I think he is a particularly appropriate candidate for the first Greeley award because of some surprising similarities between them…Like Ron, Alex started out working on Mars. Later, Ron considered wind speeds necessary to lift grains on Mars; Alex considered winds necessary to raise waves on Titan. Both studied dunes. Both used radar to probe planetary surfaces. Both wrote about icy satellites. Comparing their early careers, they were both astonishingly productive.”
Congratulations to the winner of the first Ronald Greeley Early Career Award in Planetary Science, Alex Hayes.

—LAURIE A. LESHIN, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Loudonville, N. Y.

Presentation Title: Seasonal variation in Titan's lakes and their role in the methane cycle. (Invited)

Event: 2010 Fall Meeting

Awarding Section: Planetary Sciences