In Memoriam
Planetary science education recently lost a pioneer and one of its finest members when Jaclyn Sue (Jackie) Bird Allen, 73, of Placitas, New Mexico, passed away peacefully on May 4, 2023. In 1991, Allen and her husband, planetary geologist Dr. Carl Allen, came to NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) to pursue planetary research and science […]
Pulat Babadzhanov, former head of the Department of Meteor Astronomy of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Tajik SSR Academy of Sciences, passed away on February 10, 2023. He was an expert in the field of interplanetary dust research. Babadzhanov was born on October 15, 1930, in Tajikistan. He first showed interest in the study of astronomy […]
Theodore (Ted) E. Bunch, 87, passed away on Sunday, March 26, 2023, in Prescott, Arizona. Bunch was a world-class expert in meteorite identification and classification and was recognized for his work on shocked quartz and the Younger Dyas impact hypothesis. Bunch was born on March 1, 1936, in Huntsville, Ohio. He graduated from Miami University […]
James (Jim) Burke, an American lunar settlement and exploration expert and one of the pioneers of America’s space program, passed away on August 19, 2023, at the age of 97. Burke was born in Los Angeles County on September 18, 1925. He grew up in Claremont, California, and graduated from Webb High School in 1942. In 1945, […]
Peter Gierasch, an astronomer at Cornell University whose mathematical models unveiled the turbulent vortices, tempestuous eddies, and atmospheric tumult arising on other worlds — long before spacecraft could consistently prove it with images — died on January 20, 2023, in Ithaca, New York, at the age of 82. Gierasch, a professor emeritus of astronomy in […]
Eugene (Gene) George Stansbery, 68, a longtime resident of Friendswood, Texas. passed away on August 11, 2023. Born to Jack and LaVerne Stansbery in Texarkana, Stanbery’s earliest memory was of a nighttime launch from Cape Canaveral, which spawned his lifelong passion for space. A proud graduate of Angleton High School, he recently connected with dear friends […]
Erin Lindsey Walton Hauck passed away on September 21, 2022, at the age of 44 following a battle with cancer. Walton was born on August 4, 1978, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. She grew up with a love and respect for the natural world that would continue all her life. During her undergraduate studies at the University […]
Stephen F. Wolf, a professor of chemistry at Indiana State University (ISU) in Terre Haute, Indiana, passed away unexpectedly on April 22, 2023, at the age of 58. Wolf was a highly respected analytical chemist with many interests, including analytical method development and the use of novel multivariate chemometric techniques, which he often combined when […]