Lectures

Lectures

Shoemaker Lecture

The Shoemaker Lecture is part of the AGU series of Bowie lectures that were inaugurated in 1989 at the 50th presentation of the William Bowie Medal, the AGU's highest honor.

The Shoemaker lecture is named for Eugene Shoemaker, an outstanding geologist and planetary scientist known for his study of impact craters and lunar science. Shoemaker was awarded the Bowie Medal in 1996 and was killed in an auto accident in Australia in 1997. His citation for the Bowie Medal illuminates his illustrious career that was crowned with the discovery that Comet Shoemaker/Levy-9 would impact Jupiter in 1994.

Recent Lectures

William Bowie

2020
J. Hunveter Waite Jr.
Carbon Bearing Compounds in the Saturn System

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2019
Alan Stern
The Exploration of the Pluto System and Kuiper Belt

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2018
Carol A. Raymond
Major Science from Minor Planets: Discoveries of the Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres

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2017
Scott J Bolton
The New Jupiter as Revealed by Juno (video unavailable)

2016
Meenakshi Wadhwa  
To See a World in a Grain of Sand: Insights into Solar System Formation and Evolution from Isotopic Analyses of Planetary Materials

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2015
William F Bottke Jr  
The Calm Before the Storm: Exploring the Post Accretionary Doldrums Prior to the Late Heavy Bombardment

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2014
Ellen Stofan 
Searching for Earth-like planets in this solar system and beyond

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2013
Michael Carr 
Geologic Exploration of the Planets: A Personal Retrospective of the First 50 years

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2012
Maria Zuber 
Gravity, Topography and the Early Evolution of the Moon

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2011
Sean C. Solomon 
MESSENGER: Exploring the Innermost Planet

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2010
Carle M. Pieters
Template for the Terrestrial Planets: The Moon|

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2009
Susan W. Kieffer 
Enceladus: Oasis or Ice Ball?

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2008
Peter H. Smith
The Phoenix Mission Explores the Martian Arctic

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2007
Alfred McEwen 
The Geology of Mars as Seen by MRO's HiRISE

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2006
Fredric W. Taylor 
The Atmosphere and Climate of Venus

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2005
Carolyn Porco 
Cassini's Exploration of the Saturn System

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Whipple Lecture

The Whipple Lecture is given by the winner of the Whipple Award. Fred Whipple, a gifted astronomer most noted for his work on comets, was an AGU Fellow elected in 1962 and the Section's first Whipple Award honoree in 1990.

See the Planetary Sciences Section's About webpage for further information our Section Honor and its namesake.

Recent Lecturers

Fred Whipple

2020
Rober O. Peopin
Adventures in Planetary Science 1960-2020

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2019
Faith Vilas
Synergy in Planetary Science From the Ground Up

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2018
Philip R Christensen
Infrared eyes: Turning darkness to light through the solar system

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2017
Michael Charles Malin 
My Changing Perception of Mars

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2015
Alfred S McEwen 
Ground-Breaking Geologic Processes in the Solar System

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2016
John R Spencer 
Ground-Breaking Geologic Processes in the Solar System

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2014
Laurence Soderblom 
A Retrospective: Active Volatile-Driven Geologic Processes Across the Solar System—Lessons for Planetary Explorers

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2013
Hap McSween 
Analyses from Near (Meteorites) and Far (Spacecraft): Complementary Approaches to Planetary Geochemistry

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2012
Steven Squyres 
Clues to a Hot, Wet and Violent Ancient Mars: Spirit in the Columbia Hills and Opportunity at Endeavour Crater

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2011
Joseph Veverka 
The Complex Evolution of Comet Nuclei: Evidence from Deep Impact and Stardust-NExT

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2009
Jean-Pierre Bibring
Mars Exploration: Bridging Our Past and Future

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2008
Roger Phillips 
Terrestrial Planet Geophysics

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2007
Raymond Arvidson
The Importance of a Program of Mars Exploration

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2005
John T. Wasson 
Impacts, Porosity and Volatile Loss

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2004
John A. Wood 
A Framework for Chondrite Formation in the Nebula

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2002
Thomas B. McCord
Remote Compositional Analysis: A Coming of Age

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1999
Bruce Murray
Purusing the Vision of Mars: Are We on the Right Track?

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Sagan Lecture

The Sagan Lecture is co-sponsored with the Biogeosciences Section and is named in honor of Carl Sagan. Trained in astronomy and biology Sagan was a leader in establishing the field of Astrobiology and a tireless educator, author and space advocate. He is well known among the general public for his award-winning PBS television series Cosmos and numerous books.

Sagan was President of the Section from 1980 to 1982. He was a founder of The Planetary Society and was Editor in Chief of Icarus for 12 years. An inspiration to several generations of young planetary scientists he died in 1996.

Recent Lectures

Carl Sagan

2020
Compton James Tucker III
Earth System Perspectives Inspired by Carl Sagan

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2019
Penelope J. Boston
That Which We Call Astrobiology, By Any Other Name...

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2018
Ken Caldeira
Life on Earth as Exobiology, and the Persistence of Advanced Technological Societies

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2017
Jonathan I Lunine
Exploration of the Solar System's Ocean Worlds as a Scientific (And Societal) Imperative

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2016
Nathalie A Cabrol
The Co-Evolution of Life & Environment, and the Astrobiological Quest

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2015
John Johnson
Rocky Planets Basking In The Warmth of Other Suns

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2014
Dawn Summer
Microbial Communities: Tracing Growth Processes from Antarctic Lakes to Early Earth to Other Planets

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2013
David Grinspoon 
Terra Sapiens: The Role of Science in Fostering a Wisely Managed Earth

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2012
Piers Sellers 
The Race to Understand a Changing Planet

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2011
Geoffrey W. Marcy
Radii, Masses, Densities, and Occurrence for Planets Within 0.25 AU

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2010
John Eiler 
Isotope Geochemistry and the Study of Habitability and Life on Other Planets

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2009
Tori Hoehler 
Life at the Common Denominator: Mechanistic and Quantitative Biology for the Earth and Space Sciences

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2008
Paul Falkowksi 
The story of O: The evolution of Earth's oxygen cycle and its relevance to life outside of our solar system

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2007
Ralph Lorenz 
Exploring Titan, An Earth-like Organic Paradise

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2006
David J. Des Marais 
Exploring Mars Broadens the Biogeosciences into the Realm of Astrobiology

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2005
Steven Squyres 
Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet

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2000
Maria T. Zuber
Mars Past and Present: Landscapes, Climate Change and the History of Water

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