20 November 2016

The 2017 AAS Doxsey Travel Prize Results Are In!

Gina Brissenden American Astronomical Society (AAS)

The Rodger Doxsey Travel Prize — established through the support of his father, John Doxsey, and other friends, family, and colleagues — provides graduate students and recent PhD recipients/postdocs within one year of receiving or receipt of their PhD a monetary prize to enable the oral presentation of their dissertation research at a winter meeting of the AAS. The first awards were made for the 217th AAS meeting in Seattle, Washington, in January 2011.

We received 147 oral dissertation abstracts for the Grapevine, Texas, AAS meeting, and about 75% (109) of them were entered into the 2017 Rodger Doxsey Travel Prize competition. Choosing only a small number of these to win the prize from among so many worthy entries was not easy.

In all, there were 10 2017 Doxsey Prize Winners and 5 Honorable Mentions. Prize Winners and Honorable Mentions will each receive complimentary registration for the Grapevine meeting. In addition, the Prize Winners will also receive a modest stipend to assist in their travel expenses. Prize Winners and Honorable Mentions came from a diverse group of institutions and geographical locations.

Following are the 2017 Doxsey Prize Winners and Honorable Mentions — please tell them congratulations if you see them at the meeting!

Winners (PhD Institution)
  • Vivienne Baldassare (University of Michigan)
  • Paige Godfrey (Graduate Center, City University of New York)
  • V. Zach Golkhou (Arizona State University)
  • Yanxia Li (University of Hawaii – Manoa)
  • Jingzhe Ma (University of Florida)
  • Sukrit Ranjan (Harvard University)
  • Anna Rosen (University of California, Santa Cruz)
  • Arpita Roy (Pennsylvania State University)
  • Allison Strom (California Institute of Technology)
  • Jacqueline Villadsen (California Institute of Technology)
Honorable Mentions (PhD Institution)
  • Joseph Booker (University of Toledo)
  • Christopher Faesi (Harvard University)
  • Krista Smith (University of Maryland)
  • Hyewon Suh (University of Hawaii)
  • Sarah Wellons (Harvard University)
Much gratitude goes out to this year’s volunteer Doxsey Prize Judges for their earnest efforts:
  • Katey Alatalo (Carnegie Observatories)
  • Debbie Elmegreen (Vassar College)
  • Nimish Hathi (Laboratoire D'astrophysique de Marseille)
  • Jake Noel-Storr (Chair, InsightSTEM)
  • Chris Palma (Pennsylvania State University)
  • Dan Schwartz (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)