Dear Society Members, I am presenting to you the slate of candidates for the 2019-2020 Council of The Meteoritical Society: President Meenakshi Wadhwa (Arizona State University) Vice President Brigitte Zanda (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris) Secretary Munir Humayun (Florida State University) Treasurer Karen Ziegler (University New Mexico) New Councilors Neyda Abreu (Pennsylvania State University) Chris Herd (University of Alberta) Takashi Mikouchi (University of Tokyo) Councilors (2nd term) Catherine Corrigan (Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History) Mario Trieloff (Heidelberg University) Christine Floss (Washington University, St. Louis) Maria Eugenia Varela (Instituto de Ciencias Astronómicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio) Pierre Rochette (Aix-Marseille University) The list of new councilors and vice president for 2019-2020 was prepared by the Nominating Committee and approved by Council. Brief biographies of candidates are presented below. Information on elections is also provided in The Society Newsletter. According to our bylaws, “nomination for any specific position may subsequently be made by at least 3% of the Society's members in good standing who shall verify that the candidate is qualified and willing to serve in that office. Nominations by members must be received by the Secretary no later than February 15 of the even-numbered year.” “If no candidates are nominated other than those nominated by the Nominating Committee, the Secretary shall be empowered to declare these candidates elected by affirmation.” Sincerely, Mike Weisberg Secretary of The Meteoritical Society Brief Biographies of Candidates: Vice President Brigitte Zanda Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris I have been a member of The Meteoritical Society since the early nineteen-eighties, was elected a Fellow in 2004 and have served it in several capacities. Were I to be elected Vice-President, I would certainly welcome the honor, because of the great fondness I have always had for our Society. It is just the right size: one may know most of the other members yet not all of them, and the meetings are varied and interesting but not overwhelming. Above all, I love the variety of people that make up the Society: scientists and amateurs, students and old-timers, cosmochemists, mineralogists, astrophysicists, curators… Our community is one for which stories are important and this is reflected in our Journal, which publishes stories of meteorite finds as well as those of people who made the Society, along with more classical scientific papers. We are involved in fieldwork (in Antarctica in particular) as well as in space missions. This makes our common experience incredibly rich and varied. I have been a meteoriticist all my scientific life, starting with a PhD on the isotopic effects of Galactic Cosmic Ray irradiation on iron meteorites. When I joined the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) in 1989, the “Équipe Météorites” was led by Paul Pellas, a colorful character many of us remember, who had been the first non-US President of the Society back in 1977-1978, right after Ursula Marvin was the first woman. Paul had long been interested in fission tracks in meteoritic phosphates and along with his group and Kurt Marti had recently identified a new component of Xe (FVM-Xe) and several types of minute inclusions in the metal grains of chondrites. As I knew I was destined to become in time the curator of meteorites at the MNHN, I wished to work closer to samples, and chose to follow up on these discoveries and study chondritic metal along with the rest of the group. I soon realized that the logic in inclusion distribution (size and relative abundances) was related to the chondrule environment of the metal grains, and took advantage of the arrival of Roger Hewins for a sabbatical year at MNHN (soon to become my husband) to explore this link, which led to my working along with Roger on chondritic metal, chondrules and chondrites for the many years to come. As Roger’s group was conducting experiments on chondrule textures and on volatile loss in chondrule formation, I worked on the genesis of chondritic metal with his then student Harold Connolly, and also performed observations of sulfur distribution with respect to chondrules in primitive chondrites. This work involved a lot of reflected light microscopy, which I really enjoyed, and still feel is an essential part of early sample characterization. I was also involved in trying to gain a better understanding of the chondritic assemblage, starting with the study of the relationship between the component mix of a chondrite and its oxygen isotopic signature. I later got involved in trying to understand whether or not chondrules and matrices are complementary to one another in terms of their chemical compositions, which would indicate that they are genetically related. Although I started a Believer, working with Phil Bland on the issue, I have since been convinced that the body of relevant data that we presently have access to (chondrule, matrix and bulk chemical compositions) is insufficient to unambiguously support such a paradigm-shifting claim. To improve data quality, with Hugues Leroux, Corentin Le Guillou, our student Pierre-Marie Zanetta and Éric Lewin, we are now working at designing a method to very precisely and accurately analyze fine-grained matrices in primitive chondrites. I was for 13 years the curator in charge of the MNHN meteorite collection. This gave me the opportunity to handle a large variety of samples and interact with many distinguished colleagues. Eventually, this also led to new scientific interests. Meteorite collector and dealer Luc Labenne regularly brought in new and exceptional samples, among which one from the recently discovered Martian breccia NWA 7034 / NWA 7533 / …, on which I was privileged to work with Munir Humayun, Roger, Jean-Pierre Lorand and many others, and thus study events which took place 4.4 and 1.4 billion years ago at the surface of Mars. In the 19th Century, 45 meteorites were seen to fall and recovered in France, among which no less than the 2 largest of the 5 observed CI falls and several other rare types. But in the 20th Century, only 9 meteorite falls were recovered in France, presumably because of the changes in lifestyle. This indicates that many valuable samples must fall each year in France and all over the world, which are not recovered. Along with François Colas, Sylvain Bouley, and other members of the FRIPON team, we established a camera network, which at the moment comprises 85 cameras in France and is still growing. This network aims to watch incoming bolides and reconstitute their trajectories. We hope to find our first meteorite soon and, in the long run, it should help us better understand the connections between meteorites and asteroids. FRIPON is also at the core of a large citizen science / outreach project named Vigie-Ciel (literally “sky watch”), soon to be launched. Its aim is to inform French citizens about the scientific value of meteorites, train them to identify them, and have them participate in their search and recovery. I was the scientific initiator of that project because I have always been deeply committed to public outreach and education. I do believe that The Meteoritical Society has an important role to play in promoting meteorite recovery in all countries in the world and inspire in citizens – especially the young ones – interest in science in general and Meteoritics in particular. Because science is not usually performed in isolation, I have named here several of the scientists with whom I have been enjoying fruitful collaborations, most of them members of the Meteoritical Society. Our discipline is at the crossroads of many others, and The Society, which is representative of this variety of disciplines and people, has always fostered scientific development. Roger was the Treasurer when I first met him, and from him I caught the virus of wanting to serve The Society, in which I subsequently held various offices: Counselor, member of the Nomenclature Committee, of the Nominating Committee, of the MAPS Publication Committee and of the Joint Publication Committee. This, I feel, gives me quite a good understanding of the internal functioning of our Society and would be a good preparation were I to hold the Vice-President office for which it is an honor to be considered. Secretary Munir Humayun Florida State University, Tallahassee Elemental and isotopic cosmochemistry Munir Humayun is a professor in geochemistry at Florida State University. He is known for his research on microanalysis of meteorites by laser ablation ICP-MS and for chemical and isotopic studies of meteorites, lunar samples, and the Genesis mission. He has served as chair of the Joint Publications Committee (MetSoc and Geochemical Society), and is a member of the Returned Sample Science Board for the Mars-2020 mission and an associate editor of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Treasurer Karen Ziegler Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Karen Ziegler is a stable isotope geo- and cosmochemist focusing on the oxygen isotope systematics of meteorites. Her research centers around the formation and evolution of the early solar system and planet formation, and also includes the investigation and identification of aqueous and thermal processes that affect extraterrestrial rocks on their parent body and/or on Earth. New Councilors Chris Herd University of Alberta Christopher (Chris) Herd is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta. His research focuses on the mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry of primitive, organic-rich bodies that preserve a record of the early stages of Solar System formation, and Mars as an example of a terrestrial planet with a history distinct from that of the Earth. He curates the University of Alberta Meteorite Collection, the largest University-based collection in Canada; the collection has grown over 30% since 2004 as a result of his work, including through meteorite classification. The collection is home to the pristine, still-frozen specimens of the Tagish Lake meteorite and the world’s first cold curation facility. He served as Chair of the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society between 2010 and 2015, as was the local organizing committee Chair for the 2013 Meteoritical Society Meeting in Edmonton. Neyda Abreu Penn State - DuBois Carbonaceous chondrites mineralogy and petrology Neyda Abreu is an associate professor in Earth Sciences. Her research focuses on the mineralogical and compositional characteristics of pristine carbonaceous chondrites and how these features are affected by aqueous alteration, shock, and thermal metamorphism. This work uses various electron beam techniques. Abreu has been part of the Meteorite Working Group. Takashi Mikouchi University of Tokyo Mineralogy and crystallography of planetary materials Takashi Mikouchi is an associate professor at the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo. His research focuses on mineralogy and crystallography of diverse meteorite groups using electron and synchrotron radiation X-ray beam techniques to understand their igneous and shock histories. He has been involved in the analysis of Stardust and Hayabusa samples. He chaired the last MetSoc Nominating Committee and has been a member of the Nomenclature Committee and the Publications Committee of the Society. Councilors (2nd Term) Catherine Corrigan Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History Petrology and geochemistry of chondrites and martian meteorites Catherine (Cari) Corrigan is a Geologist and the Curator of Antarctic Meteorites in the Division of Meteorites, Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, in Washington DC. In addition to classifying and curating the U.S. Antarctic Meteorite Collection, with standing service on the Meteorite Working Group, she is the Meteoritical Society's representative on the Executive Committee for Elements Magazine, and the Editor for both the Society's news page and the CosmoElements feature in Elements. Her research focuses on the geochemistry of martian meteorites, impact melts in ordinary chondrites. She has also worked on the Opportunity Rover PanCam, team and on iron meteorites, lunar meteorites and terrestrial impact rocks. Christine Floss Washington University in St. Louis Studies of presolar grains, Stardust mission to comet Wild 2 Christine Floss is a research professor in the Physics Department at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on using the diversity of extraterrestrial material available for laboratory study (meteorites, cosmic dust) to better understand the origin and evolution of the early solar nebula. Particular areas of interest include characterization of circumstellar silicate grains to understand the conditions of formation in their stellar sources, and analytical studies of samples returned by NASA’s Stardust mission to comet 81P/Wild 2. Pierre Rochette Aix-Marseille University
Meteorites Micrometeorites, impact glasses and magnetic properties Pierre Rochette is a professor in the Earth Science Department (CEREGE CNRS associated laboratory) of Aix-Marseille University. His resarch focus on meteorites, micrometeorites, impact glasses, using in particular magnetic properties. He also works on the geophysics of impact craters and in desert meteorite searches. Mario Trieloff Heidelberg University Isotope chronology of meteorites and impact structures Mario Trieloff is professor for cosmochemistry in the Earth Sciences at Heidelberg University. His research encompasses the chronology of meteorites and impact structures, noble gas isotopes in cosmo- and geochemistry, the thermal evolution of small bodies, extraterrestrial dust, and general aspects of solar system formation. He has served as chair for the Pellas-Ryder Committee of the Meteoritical Society. María Eugenia Varela Institute of Astronomy, Earth and Space Science (ICATE: Instituto de Ciencias Astronómicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio) Petrology and geochemistry of meteorites María Eugenia Varela is a researcher at CONICET and Deputy Director of ICATE, San Juan, Argentina. Her research is focused on the origin and formation of chondrules and glasses (glass inclusions and mesostasis) in chondritic and achondritic meteorites by combining mineralogy, petrology and chemistry to understand the role of liquids and the fractionation processes in the solar nebula. -- Michael K. Weisberg Dept. Physical Sciences Kingsborough Community College CUNY Brooklyn, NY 11235 718 368 5769 (office) 718 820 2289 (cell) Dept. Earth and Environmental Sciences City University of New York Graduate Center New York, NY 10016