Robin M. Canup

She attained international prominence as an innovative researcher and influential leader in planetary sciences. She was instrumental in the formulation and development of two satellite formation models most recognized by the community, viz., (i) accretion from a short-lived, circum-planetary disk of debris generated by a giant impact in the late stage of planetary accretion( as proposed for our Moon), and (ii) satellite co-accretion in a continuously supplied, viscously evolving disk of gas, dust and volatiles during the accretion phase of giant planets. In the former, she has provided a wealth of smoothed particle hydrodynamic impact simulations of increasing fidelity to examine the range of plausible impact scenarios leading to the formation of the Moon, and has convincingly extended (i) to the origins of Pluto's satellite, Charon, and the Mars satellites as well. In the latter, she has demonstrated that (ii) can explain the multiple satellite systems of giant planets, with a natural satellite-to-planetary mass ratio of order - 1/104, in agreement with Jupiter's Galilean satellites and Saturn's Titan.