Awards

Meenakshi Wadhwa, the 2021 recipient of the J. Lawrence Smith Medal, will become the director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego as of October 1. She will also serve as vice chancellor for marine sciences and dean of the School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Wadhwa received the Smith Medal for her original and meritorious investigation of meteoric bodies. Among her many groundbreaking accomplishments, Wadhwa used long-lived radioisotopes to refine the age of the solar system, in the process correcting the commonly used ratio for decay. In addition, her studies of the trace elements and stable isotopes (especially hydrogen) in meteoritic minerals have allowed her to develop new ways to interpret that data and reveal planetary secrets, particularly those of Mars.