Katharina Lodders is a German-American planetary scientist and cosmochemist who works as a research professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, where she co-directs the Planetary Chemistry Laboratory.[1] Her research concerns the chemical composition of solar and stellar environments, including the atmospheres of planets, exoplanets, and brown dwarfs, and the study of the temperatures at which elements condense in stellar environments.[2][3]

Education and career

edit

Lodders completed her doctorate in 1991 at the University of Mainz, with research on the cosmochemistry of trace elements performed at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.[4] She joined Washington University in St. Louis as a postdoctoral researcher in 1992 before continuing there as a research professor.[2]

She served as a program director for galactic astronomy at the National Science Foundation from 2010 to 2013.[5]

Books

edit

Lodders is the coauthor of books including:

  • The Planetary Scientist's Companion (with Bruce Fegley, Jr., Oxford University Press, 1998)[6]
  • Chemistry of the Solar System (with Bruce Fegley, Jr., Royal Society of Chemistry, 2010)[7]

Recognition

edit

Lodders won the 2021 Leonard Medal of The Meteoritical Society, 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".[8]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Katharina Lodders", People, Washington University in St. Louis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 4 May 2017, retrieved 2022-09-05
  2. ^ a b "Author commentaries from special topics: Katharina Lodders, from the special topic of Astrochemistry", ScienceWatch, May 2008, retrieved 2022-09-05
  3. ^ Ballard, Shawn (29 October 2020), A conversation with two award-winning space scientists, Washington University in St. Louis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, retrieved 2022-09-05
  4. ^ "Katharina Lodders", AstroGen, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2022-09-05
  5. ^ Ulvestad, Jim (May–June 2010), "News from NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST)" (PDF), AAS Newsletter (152): 8–9; Solomatov, Slava (Fall 2013), "Overview" (PDF), Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Newsletter (13), Washington University in St. Louis: 2
  6. ^ Reviews of The Planetary Scientist's Companion:
  7. ^ Reviews of Chemistry of the Solar System:
  8. ^ Leonard Medal for 2021, The Meteoritical Society, retrieved 2022-09-05
edit