Hiroko Nagahara (Japanese: 永原 裕子, born 1952) is a Japanese cosmochemist and astromineralogist whose research studies the chemical composition and formation of chondrules, the molten mineral droplets that accrete to form asteroids and meteoroids. She is a fellow of the Earth–Life Science Institute of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, a professor emerita of Tokyo University,[1] and a former president of the Meteoritical Society.[2]
Education and career
editNagahara was born in 1952 in Tokyo,[3] and studied in the faculty of science and engineering at Waseda University, graduating in 1970, earning a master's degree in 1976. She completing a doctorate in 1983 through the University of Tokyo, supervised by Ikuo Kushiro.[4]
She joined the University of Tokyo as an assistant professor in 1984, and became a full professor there in 2001.[4]
Recognition
editNagahara was the 2001 winner of the Saruhashi Prize.[5] She was the 2015 winner of the J. Lawrence Smith Medal of the National Academy of Sciences "for her work on the kinetics of evaporation and condensation processes in the early Solar System and her fundamental contributions to one of the most enduring mysteries in meteoritics, the formation of the chondrules that constitute the characteristic component of the most abundant group of meteorites."[6] In 2016 the Meteoritical Society gave Nagahara the Leonard Medal, its highest award.[2]
In 2018, Nagahara was named as a Fellow of the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU), "for pioneering and innovative contributions to cosmochemistry, meteoritics, and planetary science, and also for outstanding contributions to the Earth and planetary science community".[4][7]
Asteroid 6225 Hiroko, discovered in 1981, was named for her.[8]
References
edit- ^ "Nagahara, Hiroko", Researchers, Earth–Life Science Institute, retrieved 2022-09-01
- ^ a b Tachibana, Shogo (August 2016), "2016 Leonard Medal for Hiroko Nagahara", Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 51 (9), Wiley: 1730–1731, Bibcode:2016M&PS...51.1730T, doi:10.1111/maps.12725, S2CID 133492491
- ^ "永原裕子教授にJ.L.スミスメダル授与へ" [Prof. Yuko Nagahara to receive the JL Smith Medal], SciencePortal (in Japanese), 25 February 2015, retrieved 2022-09-01
- ^ a b c "永原 裕子(Hiroko Nagahara)先生" [Professor Hiroko Nagahara], JpGU Fellow (in Japanese), Japan Geoscience Union, retrieved 2022-09-01
- ^ 猿橋賞」受賞者一覧 [List of winners of the Saruhashi Prize] (in Japanese), Society for a Brighter Future for Female Scientists, retrieved 2022-09-01
- ^ 2015 J. Lawrence Smith Medal (PDF), National Academy of Sciences, retrieved 2022-09-01
- ^ Hiroko Nagahara elected as JpGU Fellow in FY2018, Earth–Life Science Institute, 6 June 2018, retrieved 2022-09-01
- ^ Schmadel, Lutz (2003), "6225 Hiroko", Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Volume 1, Springer, p. 519, ISBN 9783540002383