Wadhwa got the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Ever since scientists discovered Mars was once a planet with oceans as blue as those found on Earth, humanity has been tantalized by the possibility of alien life having existed on the Red Planet.
Delving into the history of water on Mars will be the primary objective of cosmochemist Meenakshi Wadhwa’s research when she collaborates with India’s premier research institute for the space sciences, which is possible due to her receipt of the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award.
Wadhwa, who serves as the director of the Center for Meteorite Studies and as a professor of geological sciences in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, will be spending four months in 2016 at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India.
Her onus will be to uncover the secrets of a unique Mars meteorite that contains more water than any known Martian meteorites, according to a press release by Arizona State University.
“It is my hope that my collaborative research at India’s Physical Research Laboratory will open future opportunities for my students and postdoctoral researchers — and possibly even others more broadly in SESE — to collaborate with students and researchers there,” Wadhwa said.
During her time in India, Wadhwa will be working with students and colleagues at the Physical Research Laboratory to understand the history of water on Mars based on studies of meteorite NWA 7034, also known as “Black Beauty.”
“We have only just begun our investigations of this meteorite — it was only discovered in 2013, and the Center for Meteorite Studies acquired a slice of it last year,” Wadhwa told ASU. The bulk chemical composition of this meteorite closely matches that of the Martian crust.
Utilizing a technique known as isotope analysis to measure the ratios of isotopes in meteorites, Wadhwa has provided significant insight into the origins and evolution of our solar system.
Wadhwa has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, Nier Prize of the Meteoritical Society, Fellow of the Meteoritical Society, the Antarctic Service Medal for two field seasons collecting meteorites in Antarctica, and even had an asteroid named after her by the International Astronomical Union, officially referred to as “8356 Wadhwa.”
Founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946, the Fulbright Scholarship is a prestigious government-run program that is designed to increase mutual understanding between the U.S. and the rest of the global community. Fulbright recipients are selected on the basis of merit related to academic or professional achievement.