Scientist was key member of NASA
Claudia Alexander, a brilliant, pioneering scientist who helped direct both NASA’s Galileo mission to Jupiter and the international Rosetta space-exploration project, has died at age 56.
Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where Alexander worked, announced her death Thursday, July 16. JPL officials said she died Saturday, July 11 after a long battle with breast cancer.
As word of her passing spread through the science community, tributes poured in.
“Claudia brought a rare combination of skills to her work as a space explorer,” said Charles Elachi, JPL’s director. “Of course, with a doctorate in plasma physics, her technical credentials were solid. But she also had a special understanding of how scientific discovery affects us all, and how our greatest achievements are the result of teamwork.”
An acclaimed scientist who conducted landmark research on the evolution and interior physics of comets, Jupiter and its moons, solar wind and other subjects, Alexander authored or co-authored more than a dozen scientific papers.
The University of Michigan, where she earned her doctorate, named her its Woman of the Year in 1993.
She was the last project manager for the NASA’s Galileo mission, in which twin spacecraft launched in 1989 made an unprecedented trip to Jupiter.
At the time of her death Alexander was project manager for the United States’ involvement in the international Rosetta Project, which marked the first time a spacecraft rendezvoused with a comet.
Born in 1959 in Canada and raised in California’s Silicon Valley, she joined JPL soon after completing graduate school.
She had planned on becoming a journalist but her parents insisted she pursue something that would better serve society.