IOM PhD candidates Nina Lanza and Karen H. were awarded US $5,000 one-year (2008-2009) Graduate Research Fellowships from the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, which is a member of the Congressionally-funded National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, administered by NASA.

IOM PhD candidate Nina Lanza was awarded a 2008 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship. The Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowships were established in 1938 in honor of Amelia Earhart, famed pilot and member of The Zonta Clubs of Boston and New York. The Fellowships of US $10,000 are made annually to women pursuing doctoral degrees in aerospace-related sciences and engineering. Women of all nationalities are eligible for this award. Zonta International is a global organization of executives and professionals working together to advance the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy. Zonta International was founded in 1919 in Buffalo, NY. Today, nearly 33,000 members belong to more than 1,200 Zonta Clubs in 66 countries and geographic areas. See their website here.

The IOM will co-sponsor a workshop entitled "Ground Truth from Mars: Science Payoff from a Sample Return Mission" at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town in Albuquerque on April 21–23, 2008. This workshop (initiated by the Curation and Analysis Planning Team for Extraterrestreal Materials, CAPTEM) will explore the science that can be extracted from the return of Mars samples to Earth and the requirements needed to ensure that the record preserved in the samples is undisturbed during sampling, return, and curation. Follow this link for the workshop's web page.

IOM research assistant professor Barbara Cohen began an assignment in October 2007 under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, where she will be working on lunar robotics issues.

IOM Director Carl Agee chairs a workshop sponsored by the Royal Society (UK) entitled Origin and Differentiation of the Earth: Past to Present, convening 13-14 September 2007 in London. See the press release.

IOM Research Professor Bob Reedy was recently named as a participating research scientist on the SELENE mission to the Moon, to be launched by the Japanese space agency JAXA in the fall of 2007. See the Albuquerque Journal story.

The Mars magma ocean modeling of Lars Borg and Dave Draper, along with geophysical modeling by Lindy Elkins-Tanton of MIT, is once again discussed in the March 2006 Planetary Science Research Discoveries. Web link