Bradley Jolliff has been awarded the 2020 Eugene Shoemaker Distinguished Scientist Medal by NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. Named after American geologist Eugene Shoemaker, one of the founders of planetary science, the award recognizes the significant contributions of Jolliff — the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences — to planetary science throughout his career.
Jolliff’s research activities focus on the study of minerals and rocks of the Earth, moon, Mars and meteorites, and what they reveal about conditions of formation and planetary processes over the past 4.5 billion years. Jolliff leads the Planetary Materials Research Group in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He currently serves as institutional lead investigator for Washington University’s participation in NASA’s Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis program, and he is a member of the Interdisciplinary Consortium for Evaluating Volatile Origins team.
In addition to his groundbreaking research, Jolliff is highly regarded as a collaborator, mentor and teacher.
“The real reward of doing science is not the great research you do or the discoveries you make,” Jolliff said. “It’s the people you are fortunate enough to meet and to work with, and to call friends and colleagues.”
