Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay Explained

Honorific Prefix:	Dr.
Sarah Toby Stewart-Mukhopadhyay
Birth Place:	Taiwan
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Planetary Scientist
Known For:	Synestia
Alma Mater:	Harvard University
Sub Discipline:	Astrophysics
Workplaces:	Caltech, Harvard University, UC Davis

Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay is an American planetary scientist known for studying planet formation, planetary geology, and materials science.^{[1] [2]} She is a professor at the University of California, Davis in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department. She was a professor at Harvard University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences from 2003 to 2014.^[3]

Stewart-Mukhopadhyay was named as one of the "Brilliant 10" by Popular Science in 2010, one of "Astronomy's Rising Stars" by Astronomy in 2013, and one of the "Top 100 Science Stories of 2015" in Discover.^{[4] [5]} She received an award from the American Astronomical Society for outstanding achievements by a young scientist.^[6] She won a MacArthur "Genius" fellowship in 2018.^[7]

Education

Stewart-Mukhopadhyay received her undergraduate degree in astrophysics and physics from Harvard in 1995. She completed her PhD at the California Institute of Technology in 2002.^[6]

Career and research

Stewart-Mukhopadhyay is director of the Shock Compression Laboratory.^[8] At Caltech, she was the first to study shock propagation in ice under similar conditions found in our solar system. Her research group is interested in planetary formation, particularly with giant impacts and impact cratering.

She was awarded the Urey Prize in 2009.^[9] Her work on shock-induced ice melting helped to show that liquid water is the most erosive fluid currently at work on the surface of Mars.^[10]

One of the tools at the Shock Compression Laboratory is a 40 mm cannon.^[11] The shock lab has been located at UC Davis since 2016. Her group also does experiments at the Z Machine at Sandia National Laboratory to study shock-induced vaporization.

Stewart-Mukhopadhyay proposed a version of the giant impact hypothesis in which an oblate Earth was slowed from a 2.3-hour long day, and allowed to become spherical, by an impact with the planet Theia.

In 2018 Simon J. Lock, Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, et al. hypothesized a new kind of astronomical object – a synestia – and proposed a new model of how the Earth and Moon were formed.^{[12] [13]}

Awards and honors

• In 2023, she was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society, "for the development and application of shock physics techniques to explain the origin and evolution of planetary systems".^[14]
• In 2018, she was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship for "advancing new theories of how celestial collisions give birth to planets and their natural satellites, such as the Earth and Moon".^[15]
• In 2009, she received the American Astronomical Society's Harold C. Urey Prize from the Division for Planetary Sciences.^[6]
• In 2003, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.^[16]
• In 2002, she began the Grove Karl Gilbert Postdoctoral Fellowship at Carnegie Institution of Washington.
• In 2001, she received the Stephen E. Dwornik Planetary Geoscience Student Paper Award, Geological Society of America.^[17]

Personal life

Stewart was born in Taiwan, where her father was stationed in the Air Force. Stewart's husband, Sujoy Mukhopadhyay, is also a professor and planetary scientist at UC Davis.^[18]

See also

• Water on Mars
• Shock waves in astrophysics

External links

• Web site: Where did the Moon come from? A new theory : Sarah T. Stewart . player.fm . 13 March 2019 . TED Salon: U.S. Air Force : February 2019 . 16 March 2019.
• The Surprising State of the Earth after the Moon-Forming Giant Impact - Sarah Stewart (SETI Talks), Jan 28, 2015

Notes and References

1. Web site: Sarah T. Stewart UC Davis Earth and Planetary Sciences. geology.ucdavis.edu. 2016-06-18.
2. Web site: Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay Awarded 2009 Harold C. Urey Prize. www.spaceref.com. 2016-06-18.
3. Web site: Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay. eps.harvard.edu. 2016-06-15.
4. Web site: brilliant 10 2010. Popular Science. 2016-06-15.
5. Karri. Farron. July 2013. Astronomy's rising stars. Astronomy.
6. Web site: 2009 DPS Prize Recipients Division for Planetary Sciences. dps.aas.org. 2016-06-18.
7. News: Los Angeles Times. MacArthur winner Sarah Stewart explores how random collisions shaped our planet and solar system. Deborah. Netburn. October 4, 2018.
8. Web site: Shock Compression Laboratory.
9. Web site: Harold C. Urey Prize in Planetary Science . Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Association . 2015-01-12.
10. Web site: 2009 DPS Prize Recipients - Division for Planetary Sciences. dps.aas.org.
11. Web site: Bio . eps.harvard.edu.
12. Lock. Simon J.. Stewart. Sarah T.. Petaev. Michail I.. Leinhardt. Zoe M.. Mace. Mia T.. Jacobsen. Stein B.. Ćuk. Matija. The origin of the Moon within a terrestrial synestia. Journal of Geophysical Research. 123. 4. 910. 2018. 10.1002/2017JE005333. 1802.10223. 2018JGRE..123..910L. 119184520.
13. Web site: How the Moon Formed Inside a Vaporized Earth Synestia . its.caltech.edu . University of California, Davis . 16 March 2019. 2018-02-28 .
14. Web site: 2023 Fellows. APS Fellow Archive. American Physical Society. 2023-10-19.
15. Web site: MacArthur Foundation retrieved October 4, 2018.
16. Web site: American Presidency Project. Press Release - White House Announces 2003 Awards for Early Career Scientists and Engineers. September 9, 2004.
17. Web site: GSA Planetary Geology Division Dwornik Awards. rock.geosociety.org. 2016-06-15.
18. Web site: UC Davis prof 'went into shock' over MacArthur 'genius' grant for her work in planet science. The Sacramento Bee . 18 March 2019.