Meenakshi Wadhwa to succeed Margaret Leinen at Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Meenakshi Wadhwa Photo courtesy of ASU via UCSD Meenakshi Wadhwa will become director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego as of Oct She also will serve as vice chancellor for marine sciences and dean of the School of Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences agents explained Thursday and hold the Charles F Kennel Director s Endowed Chair The interdisciplinary opportunities at UC San Diego combined with Scripps -year legacy of research excellence across ocean Earth and atmospheric sciences uniquely position the institution to assemble the collaborative teams needed to tackle particular of humanity s the greater part pressing challenges she commented Wadhwa s selection comes after a national search for a scientist and administrator She served as a director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University for the last six years The hiring represents a homecoming of sorts as she worked as a postdoctoral scholar at UCSD early in her career alongside the late G nter W Lugmair an isotope geochemist My time at Scripps was hugely influential in setting the trajectory for my career she revealed I attribute a lot of the successes I ve had to the early training and mentorship that I received from faculty and colleagues there I m thrilled and honored to return and lead Scripps into its next chapter of research and educational excellence Since Wadhwa has served as NASA s principal scientist for the Mars Sample Return Scheme a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency to bring samples of Mars to Earth for the first time From - she chaired the science committee of the NASA Advisory Council For her arrangement in this role she was awarded the NASA Exceptional Inhabitants Utility Medal Wadhwa s outstanding leadership and interdisciplinary research experience make her uniquely qualified to tackle pressing global challenges including surroundings change mitigation and planetary exploration announced UCSD Chancellor Pradeep K Khosla With her expertise and vision she is positioned to lead and patronage multidisciplinary collaborations across campus that will create exciting new research programs enhancing UC San Diego s position as a destination citizens research university Wadhwa will be the th head of the institution replacing Margaret Leinen who has served as vice chancellor director and dean since Leinen who declared she was stepping down from the role last summer was the first woman to lead Scripps She will continue in the role until Wadhwa arrives in San Diego From to Wadhwa served as director for the Center for Meteorite Studies at ASU which included management of the world s largest university-based collection of meteorites Prior to joining ASU she spent years as curator at the Field Museum in Chicago She is also an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences She received her doctorate in earth and planetary sciences from Washington University in St Louis and her master s and bachelor s degrees in geology from Panjab University in Chandigarh India Scripps noted for its research on circumstances change has an operating budget of million and a fleet of four academic research vessels