SwRI’s Robin Canup receives 2025 AAS DDA Dirk Brouwer Career Award

Honor recognizes her contributions to understanding the formation of planets and their satellites

2025-05-22

(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO — May 22, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Robin Canup has received the 2025 Dirk Brouwer Career Award from the American Astronomical Society’s Division on Dynamical Astronomy (AAS DDA). As the vice president of SwRI’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado, Canup leads a team of about 120 contributing to a wide variety of space programs.

Canup is best known for studies concerning the formation of planets and their satellites, including research that demonstrated how the Earth-Moon system could have been produced from a giant impact with the early Earth, and theoretical studies of the origin of satellite and ring systems around the outer planets in our Solar System.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award,” Canup said. “Participating in DDA meetings and interactions with other members have been instrumental to my career. I have had the good fortune to have known and worked with multiple past recipients, including my SwRI colleagues Dr. Hal Levison and Dr. William Ward.”

The AAS DDA presents the Dirk Brouwer Career Award annually to recognize a major contributor to the field of dynamical astronomy who demonstrates excellence in scientific research as well as a proven impact and influence in their field. The awardee delivers the named lecture at the next AAS DDA annual meeting.

“Robin has made considerable contributions to our understanding of the origins of planets and their satellites,” said Dr. Jim Burch, senior vice president of SwRI’s Space Sector. “Her numerical modeling simulations have changed the way we think the Earth-Moon system formed.”

She has received several honors during her career, such as the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences’ Harold Urey Prize (2003) and the American Geophysical Union’s Macelwane Medal (2004). In 2012, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2017 she was named a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Canup served as co-chair for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, 2023-2032. She led the survey with Professor Philip Christensen of Arizona State University.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Duke University and a master’s degree and doctorate in astrophysical, planetary and atmospheric sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/markets/earth-space/space-research-technology/space-science/planetary-science.

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SwRI’s Robin Canup receives 2025 AAS DDA Dirk Brouwer Career Award

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