Meenakshi Wadhwa is a planetary scientist and educator who studies the formation and evolution of the Solar System through the analysis of planetary materials including meteorites, Moon rocks and other extraterrestrial samples returned by spacecraft missions. She is director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.

Career

Meenakshi Wadhwa received her Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences in 1994 from

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 ...

. She was a postdoctoral research geochemist at

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

(1994–95), and then became Curator of meteorites at Field Museum of Natural History (1995-2006). She served as director of the

Center for Meteorite Studies The Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies was founded in 1960, on the Tempe Campus of Arizona State University, and houses the world's largest university-based meteorite collection. The collection contains specimens from over 1,600 separate meteor ...

at Arizona State University from 2006 till 2019, where she oversaw the curation of one of the largest university-based meteorite collections, and a variety of research and educational activities. She was appointed as director of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration as of July 1, 2019. She has searched for meteorites in Antarctica with the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (

ANSMET ANSMET (Antarctic Search for Meteorites) is a program funded by the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation that looks for meteorites in the Transantarctic Mountains. This geographical area serves as a collection point for met ...

) Program during two field seasons (2002–03 and 2012–13). She has served as a science team member on a number of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

planetary science missions including

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

and

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigati ...

. She was PI of a proposal for Sample Collection for the Investigation of Mars (SCIM) to the NASA Discovery program in 2010. She is a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

and also serves as the Principal Scientist for the Mars Sample Return program.

Awards and honors

In 1999 she was awarded the asteroid name 8356 Wadhwa by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

(IAU). She was awarded the Nier Prize in 2000, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005, and the J. Lawrence Smith Medal by the National Academy of Sciences in 2021. Wadhwa is an elected fellow of 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 the ...

(2006), the Explorers Club (2012), the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...

(2019), and the

Geochemical Society The Geochemical Society is a nonprofit scientific organization founded to encourage the application of chemistry to solve problems involving geology and cosmology. The society promotes understanding of geochemistry through the annual Goldschmidt Co ...

(2021). She was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.

References

External links

Meenakshi Wadhwa on her Career, Women in Science and Spending Four Months in a Wheelchair

The Woman Who Gets Called When a Piece of Mars Falls from the Sky

Meenakshi Wadhwa’s Arizona State University School of Earth & Space Exploration webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wadhwa, Meenakshi Living people Planetary scientists American people of Indian descent American women astronomers Women planetary scientists Arizona State University faculty Fellows of the Explorers Club Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Washington University in St. Louis alumni Panjab University alumni