Katharina Lodders is a German-American

planetary scientist Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their ...

and cosmochemist who works as a research professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

, where she co-directs the Planetary Chemistry Laboratory. Her research concerns the chemical composition of solar and stellar environments, including the atmospheres of planets,

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

s, and

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen ( 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main-sequence star. Instead, they have a mass between the most ...

s, and the study of the temperatures at which elements condense in stellar environments.

Education and career

Lodders completed her doctorate in 1991 at the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stu ...

, with research on the cosmochemistry of

trace element __NOTOC__ A trace element, also called minor element, is a chemical element whose concentration (or other measure of amount) is very low (a "trace amount"). They are classified into two groups: essential and non-essential. Essential trace elements ...

s performed at the

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn Institute; german: Max Planck Institut für Chemie - Otto Hahn Institut) is a non-university research institute under the auspices of the Max Planck Society (German: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) in Ma ...

. She joined Washington University in St. Louis as a postdoctoral researcher in 1992 before continuing there as a research professor. She served as a program director for galactic astronomy at the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

from 2010 to 2013.

Books

Lodders is the coauthor of books including: *''The Planetary Scientist's Companion'' (with Bruce Fegley, Jr., Oxford University Press, 1998) *''Chemistry of the Solar System'' (with Bruce Fegley, Jr., Royal Society of Chemistry, 2010)

Recognition

Lodders won the 2021

Leonard Medal The Leonard Medal honors outstanding contributions to the science of meteoritics and closely allied fields. It is awarded by the Meteoritical Society. It was established in 1962 to honor the first President of the Society, Frederick C. Leonard. ...

The Meteoritical Society The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote research and education in planetary science with emphasis on studies of meteorites and other extraterrestrial materials that further our understanding of t ...

, its highest award, "for her work on the condensation of presolar grains in stellar atmospheres and her compilation of the ''Solar System Abundances of the Elements'' and the condensation temperatures of the elements".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lodders, Katharina Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Planetary scientists Women planetary scientists Astrochemists German chemists German women chemists American chemists American women chemists Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni Washington University in St. Louis faculty