Alice Kust Harding is an American astrophysicist at the

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Early life and education

Harding earned a B.A. from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

, Pennsylvania, in 1973, and a Ph.D. from the

University of Massachusetts-Amherst A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degree An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a co ...

, in 1979.

Career and research

In 1980, Harding was appointed as astrophysicist in the Astrophysics Science Division at

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

, a post she has held since then. Her main research interests have been high-energy particle acceleration and radiation processes in pulsars, highly magnetized neutron stars (magnetars), gamma-ray bursts, and supernova remnants. Harding works as part of astrophysics collaborations including the NICER Science Team, the Fermi Collaboration and AMEGO.

Awards and honours

Harding was awarded the status of Fellow in the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

, after being nominated by their Division of Astrophysics in 1991, for ''pioneering investigation of the theory of

pulsar A pulsar (''pulsating star, on the model of quasar'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its Poles of astronomical bodies#Magnetic poles, magnetic poles. This radiation can be obse ...

atmospheres, including the pulsar wind and its role in accelerating particles to high energies, and for contributions to the theory of basic electromagnetic interactions in the presence of super-strong magnetic fields.'' Alice K Harding receives John C Lindsay Memorial Award

Alice K Harding receives John C Lindsay Memorial Award

In 1994, Harding received a

NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbrv. ESAM) was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under its guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually significant scien ...

in 1994. In 2012, she was awarded the John C. Lindsay Memorial Award in recognition of her scientific achievements at Goddard. Harding was awarded the 2013

Bruno Rossi Prize The Bruno Rossi Prize is awarded annually by the High Energy Astrophysics division of the American Astronomical Society "for a significant contribution to High Energy Astrophysics, with particular emphasis on recent, original work". Named after as ...

together with Roger W. Romani for ''establishing a theoretical framework for understanding gamma-ray pulsars''. She was elected a Legacy Fellow of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

in 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Alice Kust Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American women scientists American women physicists Fellows of the American Astronomical Society Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century American physicists 21st-century American women scientists