Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences announced as commencement speaker at The University of Arizona

 

POSTED ON May 05, 2022

 

The University of Arizona (UArizona) has announced that commencement will take place on May 13 in the Arizona Stadium. Dante Lauretta, leader of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, has been invited to address graduates during the ceremony. Lauretta is a 1993 graduate of UArizona, a world-renowned University of Arizona planetary scientist, and leader of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was launched in 2016 to collect a sample that will help scientists learn about the formation of the solar system and Earth as a habitable planet. OSIRIS-REx is the first NASA mission to collect and return a sample from a near-Earth asteroid.
(Photo byy NASA/Kim Shiflett).

In addition to his planetary research, Lauretta has taught from undergraduate general education to graduate-level classes. He also has taught in multiple formats, from large-audience lectures and a TEDx talk to small seminars. He has served on advisory boards for both the College of Humanities and the W.A. Franke Honors College.

“I am excited to deliver this Commencement speech,” Lauretta said in a statement. “My undergraduate studies at the University of Arizona stimulated my curiosity and launched my career in planetary exploration. The outstanding education and mentorship that I received as a student have laid the foundation for my future successes. This legacy continues with Dr. Dani DellaGiustina, who started research with me as a University of Arizona undergraduate student in 2005. Today’s students have similar amazing opportunities ahead of them. It is a privilege to address the graduating class of 2022 and I look forward to sending them off as they pursue their dreams.”

Lauretta was named a UArizona Regents Professor in 2021. The designation is reserved for scholars who have achieved distinction and made a unique contribution to the quality of the university through distinguished accomplishments in teaching, scholarship, research, or creative work.

In 1993, Lauretta earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from UArizona’s College of Science and another bachelor’s in Oriental studies with an emphasis in Japanese from the College of Humanities. He earned his Ph.D. in Earth and planetary sciences in 1997 from Washington University in St. Louis.

In 2002, Lauretta was awarded the Alfred O. Nier Prize of the Meteoritical Society for his experimental studies of iron-sulfide formation in the solar system. Sulfides play a critical role in the condensation of solids from the nebula of gas where the solar system formed.

Lauretta has also researched the transport of material in the solar nebula, the possibility of a meteorite source for the phosphorous necessary for life on Earth, and the chemical processes occurring within asteroids early in their history. Many of Lauretta’s papers on these topics are highly cited.

In recognition of his contributions, Lauretta was selected as a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 and was recognized by Discover magazine in 2004 for a top-100 science discovery for research that revealed that meteorites, particularly iron meteorites, may have been critical to the evolution of life on Earth. In 2006, the College of Science honored him with a Distinguished Early Career Teaching Award.

In 2017, Lauretta was given NASA’s Silver Achievement Medal, awarded by NASA’s center directors for “a stellar achievement” that supports the space agency’s core values. That year, he also was named to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2021, Lauretta was named a Local Genius by the Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art, an award that honors Tucsonans’ distinguished contributions to their fields.

Also in 2021, Lauretta and the team behind OSIRIS-REx were given the American Astronautical Society’s Space Technology Award for the team’s “extraordinary achievements” in surveying Bennu and acquiring a sample. The team was also awarded the 2022 John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration by the Space Foundation, which “recognizes extraordinary accomplishments by a company, space agency, or consortium of organizations in the realm of space exploration and discovery.” The award is named for the command module pilot for the Apollo 13 mission.

Lauretta is also a board game designer and creator. His first game, Xtronaut, and the updated Xtronaut 2.0 version allow between two and six players to assemble a space mission and explore the solar system. The game’s scenarios are based on real planetary missions and rocket science.