Sept. 30, 2021
Program News
Astrobiologist Selected for 2021 Women in Aerospace Outstanding Achievement Award
In 2019, Dr. Amy McAdam, Dr. Cherie Achilles, Dr. Dina Bower, and student Chloe Fishman scrambled into lava caves in Hawaii in order to find and analyze microscopic life. Their research will inform the search for signs of ancient life on Mars.Image credit: NASA Expeditions.
Dr. Amy Catherine McAdam of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has been selected as the recipient of 2021 Women in Aerospace Outstanding Achievement Award. Dr. McAdam is a Research Space Scientist in the Planetary Environments Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In her work as a geochemist, McAdam specializes in studying the mineralogy and chemistry of terrestrial Mars analog material.
As a member of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) team, McAdam’s research provides insight into the alteration of materials on Mars, and the implication of alteration processes on the habitability of environments in Mars’ past. Dr. McAdam’s studies aid in the interpretation of data collected by the SAM instrument on NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.
Click here view additional recipients of the 36th Women in Aerospace Awards.
Dr. Amy McAdam described the types of minerals detected by SAM in "Exploring Gale Crater's Record of Martian Environmental History" on the NASA hyperwall at the 2017 AGU Fall Meeting.Image credit: NASA GSFC.
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Constraints on the Depositional and Diagenetic History of the Glen Torridon Clay-Bearing Unit from the Mars Science Laboratory Sample Analysis at Mars Instrument Suite – Narrated by Dr. Amy Mcadam (NASA GSFC)