Friday, April 04, 2025

New and exciting activities in the
McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences

2025 McDonnell Distinguished Lecture Series

 Joseph S. and Sophia S. Fruton Professor
of Astronomy and Physics
Yale University 

Colloquium - Wednesday, April 23:
New Insights into the Formation of the First Black Holes
4:00 pm, Wilson Hall 214
Refreshments: 3:15 pm

Public Lecture - Thursday, April 24:
Unveiling the Invisible Universe with
the James Webb Space Telescope
7:00 pm, Whitaker 100 

MCSS 50th Anniversary Symposium
May 20-22

In May 2025, the Center will be celebrating fifty years of playing a key role at Washington University through endowed professorships, acquisition of sophisticated instrumentation, support of faculty involvement in space science missions, supporting postdoctoral and graduate student fellowships and undergraduate  interns, seeding innovative research, administering visiting scientist programs, and fostering wide-reaching collaborations.

Join us as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences and look ahead to new opportunities to advance knowledge of our Solar System and our universe.

MCSS Fellows in the News

A nebula’s X-ray glow may come from a destroyed giant planet
Paul Byrne | Science News

Recent Publications by MCSS Fellows

Green, A. P., Byrne, P. K., et al. (2025). No magmatic driving force for Europan sea-floor volcanism. Nature Astronomy. 

Klimczak, C., Crane, K. T., & Byrne, P. K. (2025). Mercury has multiple, superposed global tectonic patterns. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 658, 119331. 

Xenopoulos, M. A., Wysession, M., et al. (2025). Commitment to advance excellence and inclusion in the earth and space sciences scholarly publications. AGU Advances, 6(2). 

Ogilvie, M. C., et al. (2025). Exotic phases in finite-density ℤ₃ theories. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2025(3). 

Bub, J. M., Piarulli, M., Pastore, S., et al. (2025). Bayesian analysis of nucleon-nucleon scattering data in pionless effective field theory. Physical Review. C, 111(3). 

Baring, M. G., Hu, K., & Thi, H. D. (2025). Magnetic Thomson transport in high-opacity domains. The Astrophysical Journal, 982(2), 126. 

Goodman, C., Buckley J.H., Gaikwad C., Hoffman J., Murch K., et al. (2025). ADMX Axion Dark Matter Bounds around 3.3  μeV with Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky Discovery Ability. Physical Review Letters, 134(11). 

Opportunities

Baines Family Planetary Sciences Scholarship

The nomination period for the Baines Family Planetary Sciences Scholarship is now open. The preference for selection of this scholarship shall be based on:

We invite MCSS fellows to nominate students, preferrably currently in their sophomore or junior years but outstanding freshman will also be considred, who have shown strong academic performance and dedication to these fields of study.

Please send your nominations, including a brief supporting statement, to Vickie Gee. The deadline for submissions is April 11, 2025.

Ground-based Radial Velocity Surveys as the Foundation for Future Space Missions

Space Sciences/Astrophysics Seminar
Howard Isaacson
University of California Berkeley
TODAY, Friday, April 4
9:00am, Compton 241

Unveiling Material Mysteries of the Universe

Saturday Science Lecture
Sheng Ran
WashU
Sunday, April 6
Please note that this Saturday Science event is on Sunday!
10:00am, Crow 201

The Life of a Mars Rover: WashU's Connections to Past and Present Missions to the Red Planet

WashU Wellness Star Trak Challenge Special Talk
Scott VanBommel
WashU
Wednesday, April 9
12:00pm, Rudolph 301

Revealing the Most Extreme Accretion Disk Winds with XRISM

Space Sciences/Astrophysics Seminar
Joseph Neilsen
Villanova University
Friday, April 11
9:00am, Compton 241

Cultivating Dynamic Academic Environments:
A Blueprint for Collaboration, Innovation and Leadership

April 7, 2025  9:00am-5:00pm, Duncker Hall

In this time of flux and dramatic cultural shifts around higher education, we must take the time to cultivate responsive academic environments. This full-day event aims to generate fresh approaches around our topics of collaboration, innovation and leadership in academic settings. A series of panels, hosted by the Center for the Humanities and the Office of Public Scholarship, will feature visiting speakers and WashU faculty members who are dynamic examples at this increasingly important nexus.

Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a planetary scientist, is one of the afternoon speakers for Panel 3, Leading and Working Across Disciplines (1-2 pm) and again for Panel 5 (Final Roundtable and Reflections, 3:15-4:15 pm). Professor Elkins-Tanton will be returning to WashU in the fall to deliver the 2025 Walker Distinguished Lectures on November 5-6.

#SciComm Seminar: Communicating Effectively with Policymakers

April 17, 2025  2:00-3:00pm on Zoom

#SciComm Seminar is a free seminar series featuring expert guests from the WashU community and beyond, discussing topics related to all aspects of science communication.

Ross C. Brownson, WashU Public Health, will discuss the basic principles for effective communication with policymakers, including core concepts from communication science, ways of bridging political divides, the application of a useful communication model, and elements of an effective policy brief. 

This event is open to all, but registration is required. 

Submit Videos for the New 3D Monitor

Have you seen the new holographic fan on the first floor of Rudolph Hall? It's located in an alcove across from the Grossman Mineral Museum.

Thanks to a generous donation from Jerrold and Marsha Grossman, EEPS has acquired this advanced technology. The plan is to highlight students engaged in research.

We would love to have your help with video creation! 

Subscribe to the MCSS Messenger

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Director: Brad Jolliff
Associate Director: Michael Nowak
Assistant to the Director: Vickie Gee
Communications Specialist: Alison Verbeck

Compiled and edited by Alison Verbeck. Please send any contributions to alison@wustl.edu.

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