Renu Malhotra (born 1961) is an American

planetary scientist Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of th ...

from India, known for using the orbital resonance between

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest k ...

and

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 time ...

to infer large-scale orbital migration of the

giant planet The giant planets constitute a diverse type of planet much larger than Earth. They are usually primarily composed of low-boiling-point materials ( volatiles), rather than rock or other solid matter, but massive solid planets can also exist. T ...

s and to predict the existence of Plutinos in resonance with

. The asteroid 6698 Malhotra was named for her on 14 December 1997 (). She is credited by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

with the co-discovery of , a

trans-Neptunian object A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has a semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au). Typicall ...

in the Kuiper belt.

Early life and career

Renu Malhotra was born in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the NCT Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati B ...

in 1961. Her father was an aircraft engineer at

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a division of Air India Limited. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. It was a division of Air India Limited after ...

. Her family moved to

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

when she was a child. She attended the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, graduating with an M.S. degree in Physics in 1983. Malhotra then attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

, where she was introduced to non-linear dynamics by

Mitchell Feigenbaum Mitchell Jay Feigenbaum (December 19, 1944 – June 30, 2019) was an American mathematical physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the Feigenbaum constants. Early life Feigenbaum was born in Philadelphia, ...

. She received her Ph.D. degree in Physics from Cornell in 1988, with Stanley F. Dermott as her doctoral advisor. With the help of Peter Goldreich who had read her paper on the moons of Uranus, she obtained a postdoctoral research position at

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

. She then worked for nine years at Lunar and Planetary Institute, where she completed work on

's orbital resonance and predicted the resonant structure of the

Kuiper Belt The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 t ...

. Malhotra is currently a professor at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...

's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

Awards and honors

* 1997

Harold C. Urey Prize The Harold C. Urey Prize is awarded annually by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. The prize recognizes and encourages outstanding achievements in planetary science by a young scientist. The prize is named af ...

* 2006 Outstanding Alumnus Award from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi * 2010 Galileo Circle Fellow, University of Arizona * 2015 American Academy of Arts and Sciences * 2015 National Academy of Sciences * 2016 Louise Foucar Marshall Science Research Professor * 2016 Regents' Professor, University of Arizona

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malhotra, Renu 1961 births Cornell University alumni Discoverers of minor planets IIT Delhi alumni 20th-century Indian physicists Living people People from New Delhi Indian theoretical physicists University of Arizona faculty Scientists from Delhi Indian emigrants to the United States

Early life and career

Awards and honors

See also

References