Dobrin Lecture - University of Houston
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Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

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Dobrin Lecture

FOR STUDENTS:

There is a limit of 30 poster presentations. You will receive an email from Sarai Hernandez a week before the deadline to confirm your poster submission and attendance.

Poster Submission: 
⦁ Please use this form to submit your poster information

⦁ Doing this form also serves as your RSVP for the event. Do not use the RSVP button on the Dobrin website if you are submitting a poster.
⦁ If you want to be eligible for a poster competition award, you must submit your title by midnight Feb 16th so that it will appear on the judging form.

⦁ If you have any questions or difficulties with your poster submission, please contact Sarai Hernandez via email: sherna27@central.uh.edu
Students presenting posters must:
a) Arrive by 4:00 pm to mount posters.
b) Present and stay for the entire lecture in order to receive their poster award prize.
c) Dismount posters when the lecture is over.

⦁ Follow this link for instructions to create your poster file: https://support.geosc.uh.edu/docs/plot_pc.htm
⦁ Plan your poster to fit on a 4’ height by 8’ width board. The size of the poster should be 42 inches x 72 inches.
⦁ If you want the department to print your poster, the file must be submitted by midnight February 16th: Email the file to Jay Krishnan: krishnan@central.uh.edu Students not presenting posters: Please RSVP here. Admission is free.
Prize categories

1st Place = $1000
2nd Place = $800
3rd Place = $600
4th Place = $400
5th Place = $200

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Please join the
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
and the Geophysical Society of Houston at the

30th Annual Milton B. Dobrin Lecture

Wednesday, February 28, 2024
5:00–8:00 PM

Exploring Europa, Jupiter’s Ocean World: A View from Earth (and Mars)

presented by

Donald B
Dr. Donald D. Blankenship
Research Professor, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics

Schedule of Events

5:00 PM

Student Poster Presentations

6:30 PM

Overview of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at UH
Tom Lapen

6:35 PM

Geophysics at UH
Yingcai Zheng

6:45 PM

Dobrin Lecture Presentation
Donald D. Blankenship

7:45 PM

Student Poster Award Announcements

Join us for hors d'oeuvres and social interaction.
Admission is free.
Please RSVP.

RSVP Here

University of Houston Student Center South Ballroom
On the Second Floor
4455 University Dr., Houston, TX 77004
Parking available on the Welcome Center Garage.

About the Speaker

Donald Blankenship is a researcher interested in the dynamic processes below, within and surrounding terrestrial ice sheets that control rapid changes in global sea level as well as sub-ice habitability across the solar system, particularly at Europa. Don has been PI and director for many Antarctic exploration programs incorporating aero geophysical platforms. He has extensive experience with instrumentation, including multi-frequency radar, laser altimeters, magnetometers, gravity and GPS as well as both active and passive seismic instrumentation. His specialty is integrating these tools to produce the rich data sets required to address carefully posed hypotheses for the evolution of Earth’s ice sheets and ice shelves as well as understanding the formation of Europa’s dynamic surface geology using terrestrial analogs.


Additionally, Don has been an active member of NASA-sponsored Science Definition Teams (SDT) investigating missions to Europa since 1998. He was a member of the Europa Orbiter and Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter SDTs and served as the ice shell team lead for the Joint NASA/ESA Europa Jupiter System Mission SDT. In this role, Don has acted as an advisor on the implementation of orbital radar sounders as critical instrumentation for the exploration of Europa and the testing and validation of key hypotheses for processes controlling its habitability. Don is currently Principal Investigator for the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) instrument, to be flown on NASA’s flagship Europa Clipper mission launching in October of 2024. Don is also a member of the Science Team for the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) instrument aboard ESA’s Juice flagship mission launched in April of 2023 to Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Over his career Don has published approximately 200 peer-reviewed papers receiving over 17,000 citations; he currently manages a large science group focused on fielding both fixed wing and rotary aircraft for internationally collaborative studies of both the Antarctic and Arctic as well as managing the orbital radar investigations at Europa.