WIPS: Barbara Cohen, Renaissance Woman

Kat Gardner-Vandy
Women in Planetary Science

Dr. Barbara Cohen is a planetary scientist as NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, AL. Barb has a B.S. in Geology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL). 

She is an expert in the geochronology and geochemistry of meteorites and serves as the project scientist for the US nodes of the International Lunar Network.  

Barb has been to Antarctica twice as part of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program, driven the Mars Exploration Rovers around Mars, and even has an asteroid named after her (6816 Barbcohen). Barb is currently in the process of building a new flight instrument and a new noble-gas laboratory at MSFC.

As a current grad student at LPL, I was eager to interview Barb for the 51 Women in Planetary Science series.

Read the interview HERE.

UA Undergrad takes the Moon to Washington

"We have to conquer the moon first," UA
undergraduate researcher Michael Schaffner,
among 74 out of 850 applicants chosen to
present research on Capitol Hill [Associated
Students of the University of Arizona].

La Monica Everett-Haynes
UANews

Michael Schaffner recalls reading about advancements in robotics and NASA's Space Shuttle program while growing up in the 1980s, events that helped develop his affinity for science and engineering.

Now Schaffner, a University of Arizona (UA) undergraduate researcher, is putting that childhood passion to practice, working with other researchers to expand knowledge about water deposits on Earth's Moon.

"The moon is one of those places where it is a fundamental first step. If we want to have a chance for a multi-planetary voyage, we have to conquer the moon first," said Schaffner, a UA senior studying systems engineering.

And because of his involvement with UA research investigating the location and behaviors of hydrogen on the moon, Schaffner has been selected to take his research to the nation's capital during the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Posters On the Hill event.

Schaffner is one of 74 students out of pool of 850 applicants selected to present their research in Washington, D.C. as part of CUR's 16th annual undergraduate poster session to be held April 24. Students in a broad range of disciplines will have the chance to speak with congressional Representatives and Senators, and also members of national organizations and other government agencies. 

Schaffner will exhibit a poster, "Water on the Moon: Remote Sensing from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter."

He conducted the research as an undergraduate intern for the Arizona Space Grant Consortium. Schaffner worked with William Boynton, a UA professor for the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and other collaborators.  

Read the article, HERE.