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Leshin named to a top NASA Exploration position
WASHINGTON – WIA member Laurie Leshin has been named the new deputy associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Her new role was effective in January.
"We are delighted for Laurie and her new position at NASA," said Women in Aerospace President Daryle Lademan. "Laurie is an outstanding scientist and role model, and we are proud to have her among our ranks. Her new role helps show that WIA members continue to make important contributions to our aerospace endeavors."
Prior to her appointment, Dr. Leshin served as the deputy center director for science and technology at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. In this position, she was the senior scientist at NASA’s largest science center, helping shape the center’s strategy and leading its science and technology investment activities. Before joining NASA in 2005, she was the Dee and John Whiteman Dean Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences and director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University.
Dr. Leshin’s work has led to outstanding science research. She has been involved in deciphering the record of water in objects in our solar system, which included the use of meteorites from Mars to assess the history of water and the potential for life on the Red Planet. She has been on science teams for several NASA missions, including the Mars Polar Lander and the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory.
Dr. Leshin’s work has led to outstanding science research. She has been involved in deciphering the record of water in objects in our solar system, which included the use of meteorites from Mars to assess the history of water and the potential for life on the Red Planet. She has been on science teams for several NASA missions, including the Mars Polar Lander and the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory.
In 2004, she received the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award for non-NASA personnel. In 1996, she was the inaugural recipient of the Meteoritical Society's Nier Prize, awarded for outstanding research in meteoritics or planetary science by a scientist under the age of 35. The International Astronomical Union recognized her contributions to planetary science with the naming of asteroid 4922 Leshin.
Dr. Leshin’s scientific expertise is in cosmochemistry. She is primarily interested in analyzing the record of water on objects in our solar system. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Arizona State University, and her Ph. D. in Geochemistry in 1994 from California Institute of Technology.
Dr. Leshin has been a Women in Aerospace member for many years and served on WIA’s board of directors from 2007 to 2009.
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