Monica Grady | |
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| Born | (1958-07-15)15 July 1958 (age 67) Leeds,West Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
| Education | St Aidan's College,Durham University (1979) Darwin College, Cambridge (1982) |
| Occupation(s) | Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at theOpen University |
| Years active | Since 1979 |
| Known for | Work onmeteorites |
| Television | Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (2003) |
Monica Mary Grady,CBE[2] (born 15 July 1958)[3] is a British space scientist, primarily known for her work on meteorites.[2] She is currently Professor of Planetary and Space Science at theOpen University[4] and is also theChancellor ofLiverpool Hope University.[5]
Monica Grady is the oldest of eight children and the daughter of teachers.[2] She attended Notre Dame Collegiate School for Girls in Leeds, prior to it becoming Notre Dame Grammar School and then laterNotre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College, as a pupil of Form Sherwin.
Grady graduated from theUniversity of Durham in 1979, where she was a student atSt Aidan's College then went on to complete a PhD on carbon in stony meteorites atDarwin College, Cambridge in 1982 where she studied under ProfessorColin Pillinger and also met her husband.[2]
Grady has formerly been based at theNatural History Museum, where she curated the UK's national collection of meteorites. She has built up an international reputation in meteoritics, publishing many papers on thecarbon andnitrogen isotope geochemistry of primitive meteorites, onMartian meteorites, and on interstellar components of meteorites.
Grady was appointed a Fellow of theMeteoritical Society in 2000, a Fellow of theInstitute of Physics in 2012 and a Fellow of theGeochemical Society in 2015 (these are honorary appointments, bestowed by the President and Council of each Society, following nomination by peer-scientists). She has been a Fellow of theRoyal Astronomical Society since 1990, and a Fellow of theMineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland since 1992. From 2012 to 2013, she was President of theMeteoritical Society. She was awarded the Coke Medal of theGeological Society of London in 2016, for her work in science communication.
Grady gave theRoyal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2003, on the subject "A Voyage in Space and Time".[6] Asteroid (4731) was namedMonicagrady in her honour.
In 2010, Grady returned to Durham, spending 3 months at St Mary's College as a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study[7]Grady was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to space sciences.[8]
In 2014, Grady spoke toBBC News about the aims and the significance of the spacecraftRosetta. Grady said: "The biggest question that we are trying to get an answer to is: where did life on Earth come from?"[9] A video of her highly enthusiastic reaction when Philae successfully landed on the comet was published widely around the internet on many media sources.[10]On 31 July 2015 she appeared on Radio 4'sDesert Island Discs.[2]
In July 2019, Grady was awarded anHonorary Doctorate honoris causa byLiverpool Hope University for her work in communication of science and faith; in January 2020, she was installed as its thirdChancellor.
Grady is one of the members of Euro-Cares,[11] an EU-funded Horizon2020 project which has the aim of developing a roadmap for a European Sample Curation Facility, designed to curate precious samples returned from Solar System exploration missions to asteroids, Mars, the Moon and comets.
Grady is a practisingCatholic. Her youngest sister, Dr Ruth Grady, is a Senior Lecturer in microbiology at theUniversity of Manchester.[12] Grady's husband, Professor Ian Wright, is also a planetary scientist at the Open University.[13] Ian was Principal Investigator of the Ptolemy instrument on thePhilae lander, part of ESA'sRosetta spacecraft. Ian and Monica have one son, Jack Wright, who works in the film industry.[14]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)CIP t.p. (Monica M. Grady) pub. info. (Monica Mary Grady; b. July 15, 1958)
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