Support of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society to be held in Chicago in 2000.

该奖项由极地项目办公室南极地质和地球物理项目支持，提供资金帮助支持第63届气象学会年会。这次会议将于2000年8月28日至9月1日在芝加哥举行，由菲尔德自然历史博物馆和芝加哥大学主办。预计美国宇航局、巴林杰基金会、JEOL美国公司、Cameca Inc.，芬尼根公司，关于Micromass Inc.会议的主要科学重点是陨石作为太阳系起源和演化的线索。国家科学基金会提供的资金用于支付学生和一些知名科学家（主要来自无法参加会议的前苏联集团国家）参加会议的津贴，气象学会的年会是技术会议，而不是大会，吸引了广泛的国际参与。会议的主题主要是陨石的矿物学、同位素和化学研究，早期太阳系过程的理论研究，以及撞击现象的实地和理论研究。整个科学主题是了解我们的太阳系及其组成部分的形成和演变，以及一般的太阳系。最近在陨石学会会议上引起极大兴趣的专题包括：发现保存在球粒陨石中的星际颗粒的性质和起源;短寿命放射性核素在新形成的太阳系中的分布及其在早期行星熔化中可能发挥的作用;火星陨石的地球化学和同位素特征及其对地质、大气火星上的水圈和可能的生物圈;可能的天体物理学站点（恒星类型），已知在早期太阳系中存在的同位素异常物质来自哪里;以及过去数万年来撞击地球的陨石数量可能的长期变化。

This award, supported by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, provides funds to help support the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society. The meeting will be held in Chicago, from August 28-September 1, 2000, under the organizational sponsorship of the Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago. Additional support is anticipated from NASA, The Barringer Foundation, JEOL USA Inc., Cameca Inc., Finnigan Inc., and Micromass Inc. The principal scientific focus of the meeting is on meteorites as clues to the origin and evolution of the solar system. Funding from the National Science Foundation is intended for stipends to enable students as well as some established scientists (primarily from former Soviet Bloc countries who cannot otherwise afford to attend) to participate in the Meeting.Annual meetings of the Meteoritical Society are technical conferences, not conventions, and they attract broad international participation. The subject matter of the conference is dominated by mineralogical, isotopic and chemical studies of meteorites, theoretical studies of early solar system processes, and field and theoretical studies of impact phenomena. The overall scientific theme is learning about the formation and evolution of our solar system and its components, and solar systems in general. Recent topics of great interest at Meteoritical Society meetings have included the nature and origin of interstellar grains that have been found preserved in chondrite meteorites; the distribution of short-lived radionuclides in the newly-formed solar system and their possible role in early planetary melting; geochemical and isotopic characteristics of Martian (SNC) meteorites and their implications for the geology, atmosphere, hydrosphere and possibly biosphere on Mars; the possible astrophysical sites (stellar types) from which isotopically-anomalous material known to be present in the early solar system was derived; and possible secular variations in the meteorite population bombarding Earth over the past several tens of thousands of years.