Awards

2024 Award Recipient Announced

Robert J. Trumpler Award

For a recent PhD thesis considered unusually important to astronomy

The Robert J. Trumpler Award is given each year to a recent recipient of the PhD degree in North America whose research is considered unusually important to astronomy.

2024 Robert J. Trumpler Award given by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to Dr. Maggie Thompson who completed her doctorate in astronomy in 2023 from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

 San Francisco, California– September 16, 2024 - The Robert J. Trumpler Award is presented to a recent recipient of a PhD degree whose research is considered unusually important to astronomy. The recipient of the 2024 Robert J. Trumpler Award is Dr. Maggie Thompson, who completed her doctorate in astronomy from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2023. One nominator declared that Thompson’s dissertation work “will be seen as the start of something new in astrophysics.”

Thompson’s dissertation sat at the intersection of astrophysics, geochemistry, and meteorites to answer fundamental questions about the origins of rocky planet atmospheres, what compositions are feasible, and how to differentiate what gasses may be signs of life versus naturally forming. Thompson explored these questions through a range of scientific methodologies including developing novel laboratory experiments on meteorites and modeling expertise in planetary climate, photochemistry, and geochemical evolution. As facilities like the James Webb Space Telescope begin to probe the properties of rocky exoplanets directly, this compelling cross-disciplinary work is critical to interpret those observations. Thompson’s meteorite experiments constrain how outgassing from rocky exoplanets produces molecules that set the stage for the development of an atmosphere. Thompson’s modeling efforts demonstrated how methane, one of the few readily detectable biosignatures with current facilities, is produced in the absence of life. In her paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Thompson outlines a three-pronged recipe to determine if observations of abundant atmospheric methane could be a sign of life; with the James Webb Space Telescope actively detecting methane, Thompson’s work is foundational to the search for extraterrestrial life. 

Thompson’s work has been published in prestigious journals and she has served as a research mentor to both more junior graduate and undergraduate students as well as serving as an organizer in the Bay Area, California for the Rising Stargirls Interactive Astronomy Workshops. Multiple nominators remarked on Thompson’s engaging presence as a public speaker. Although early in her career, Thompson has taken on leadership roles as a member of the American Astronomical Society’s Early Career Task Force and as a National Osterbrock Leadership Program Fellow.

Thompson is currently a NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Sagan Fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Earth and Planets Laboratory, where her main research interest is to use experimental techniques to understand the link between atmospheres and the bulk composition of rocky exoplanets. As part of this work, she also collaborates with researchers at ETH Zürich in Switzerland.

Join us in celebration of Maggie Thompson’s achievements at the in-person ASP Awards Gala on Saturday, November 9, 2024 in Burlingame, CA.

Please contact the Awards team if you have questions about the nomination process