DTM Visiting Investigator and former CASE (Carnegie Academy for Science Education) Director Inés Cifuentes is the recipient of the 2007 Hispanic Heritage Award for Math and Science. Instituted by the White House in 1987, the Hispanic Heritage Awards are the most prestigious Hispanic honors in the United States. Cifuentes is recognized for her role in creating CASE. The award citation notes that “during the ten years she directed CASE, more than 1,000 teachers were trained in science, mathematics, and technology, and a group of fifty talented CASE mentor teachers were nurtured.” Now the Manager of Education at AGU, Cifuentes has also been awarded the National Hispanic Scientist of the Year Award from the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, FL. For more information, see the award citation.

MESSENGER Fellow Natalia Gómez Pérez joined DTM on 1 October, following the defense of her Ph.D. at the University of Alberta last month. Gómez Pérez’s thesis involved numerical studies of magnetic dynamos in planets, including terrestrial planets, ice giants, and gas giants. By mean of numerical simulations, she showed that the intensity and geometry of planetary magnetic fields are determined by the internal structure and the physical properties of the dynamo-generating fluid.