is the highest honorary recognition an employee can receive within the Department of the Interior. Quoting from the award, the 1985 USGS Yearbook states: “Harold Masursky, Geologist, for his imaginative leadership in the field of astrogeology which has influenced almost every facet of lunar and planetary exploration since the beginning of the nation's space program.” The Masursky crater on Mars was chosen because it is effluvial, meaning "flow" (it looks like water ran through it), to honor his fervent belief that Mars once had flowing water on the surface. In 1981, the asteroid 2685 Masursky was discovered and named in his honor. The Masursky Award for Meritorius Service to Planetary Science, first awarded to Carl Sagan in 1991, and the Masursky Lecture, originating in 1992 and given during the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), are named for him as well. *Note there is some confusion about the year of Harold Masursky's birth; in some places it is reported as 1922 and in some places is reported as 1923. Awards 1972 NASA Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Johnson Space Center 1973 NASA Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Johnson Space Center 1977 NASA Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Johnson Space Center 1980 NASA Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal; Johnson Space Center 1981 Honorary D.Sc. degree conferred by Northern Arizona University 1985 (gold medal). 1988 Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Trophy for Lifetime Achievements in Lunar and Planetary Exploration (in 2020 renamed “The Michael Collins Trophy”) 1990 G. K. Gilbert Award from the Geological Society of America for outstanding contributions to the solution of fundamental problems in planetary geology 1990 JPL-NASA Magellan Mission Award Plaque For Exceptional Contributions in the Exploration of Venus (posthumous award presented by Jet Propulsion Lab) Legacy Harold Masursky Award for Meritorious Service to Planetary Science, usually called the Masursky Award, is awarded annually by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society. The Harold Masursky Lecture Series began in 1992, as a tribute to his work, and is sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Selected publications Masursky, Harold, J. M. Boyce, A. L. Dial, G. G. Schaber, and M. E. Strobell. "Classification and time of formation of Martian channels based on Viking data." Journal of Geophysical Research 82, no. 28 (1977): 4016–4038. Masursky, Harold, George Willis Colton, and Farouk El-Baz. "Apollo over the Moon: a view from