PASADENA, Calif.-- Andrew P. Ingersoll of the California Institute of Technology has been awarded the 2007 Gerard P. Kuiper Prize by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society in honor of his outstanding contributions to planetary science. The award was presented this week during the annual DPS meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Ingersoll, the Earle C. Anthony Professor of Planetary Science at Caltech, has been a leader in the investigation of planetary atmospheres for more than four decades. His research has included studies of the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus, the occurrence of liquid water on Mars, the supersonic winds on Jupiter's moon Io, and the atmospheric dynamics of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. He participated on the instrument teams for many NASA/JPL missions including Pioneer Venus, Pioneer Saturn, Voyager, Mars Global Surveyor, Galileo, and Cassini.
Ingersoll is a recipient of NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Astronomical Society.
The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize has been given annually since 1984 to scientists "whose achievements have most advanced our understanding of the planetary system," among them Carl Sagan, James Van Allen and Eugene Shoemaker. The award is named after the pioneering Dutch-born astronomer, who is considered the father of modern planetary science. In 1951, Kuiper proposed the existence of a belt of minor planets at the edge of the solar system; after its discovery, the region was named the Kuiper Belt in his honor. He also discovered the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, the carbon dioxide atmosphere of Mars, Uranus's satellite Miranda, and Neptune's moon Nereid.
