Catherine L. Johnson is a planetary scientist known for her research on the magnetic fields of planets including

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

, Venus, Earth and its moon, and Mars. In 2023, she was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

Education and career

Johnson has B.Sc. from the University of Edinburgh (1989), and earned a Ph.D. in geophysics from

Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...

, University of California, San Diego in 1994. Following her Ph.D., she was a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Institution for Science until 1997, at which point she joined the IRIS Consortium where she worked until 2001. From 2001 until 2006, she worked at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and then she moved to the University of British Columbia. In 2010, she joined the

Planetary Science Institute The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research institute based in Tucson, Arizona, focusing on planetary science. , its director is Dr. Mark V. Sykes. PSI, along with Space Science Institute (SSI) Southwest Researc ...

. In 2013, Johnson was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union who cited her "for significant contributions to understanding the magnetic fields and interior structures of the Moon and terrestrial planets". From 2019 until 2020, Johnson was the president Geomagnetism, Paleomagnetism and Electromagnetism section at the American Geophysical Union.

Research

Johnson is known for her research on magnetic fields of planets, and how they change over time. She uses chemical signals stored in lava flows to track changes in Earth's magnetic field, which includes lava flows sampled in locations such as the Azores. Her research on Mercury used the

MESSENGER ''MESSENGER'' was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geoche ...

space probe to make observations of Mercury's magnetic field. On Mars, Johnson tracks variability in Mars' magnetic field over time and uses the

Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter 260px, MOLA topographic images of the two hemispheres of Mars. This image appeared on the cover of ''Science'' magazine in May 1999. The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) was one of five instruments on the ''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) spacecraf ...

to track the topography of Mars' northern polar cap. Johnson's research on Mars uses first magnetic sensor placed on Mars, part of the InSight lander, to reveal small scale details about Mars' magnetic field which was stronger than expected based on previous measurements using satellite data. Johnson is the only Canadian involved in the InSight mission, which is led by the United States'

National Aeronautic and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

(NASA).

Selected publications

* * * * *

Awards and honors

*Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2013) *Edward Bullard lecture, American Geophysical Union (2014) *

Price Medal Price Medal is a medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, for investigations of outstanding merit in solid-earth geophysics, oceanography, or planetary sciences. The medal is named after Albert Thomas Price. It was first awarded in 1994 and was i ...

, Royal Astronomical Society (2019)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Catherine L. Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Living people Alumni of the University of Edinburgh University of California, San Diego alumni Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Women planetary scientists Planetary scientists Canadian space scientists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Canadian women scientists Canadian geophysicists 21st-century Canadian physicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences