Margaret G. Kivelson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Margaret Kivelson
|
|
|---|---|
Kivelson in 2007
|
|
| Born |
Margaret Galland Kivelson
October 21, 1928 |
| Alma mater | Radcliffe College (A.B.), Radcliffe College (A.M.), Harvard University (Ph.D.) |
| Children | 2, including Steven Kivelson |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Plasma physics |
| Institutions | UCLA (1967-present) University of Michigan (2010-present) |
| Thesis | Bremsstrahlung of High Energy Electrons (1957) |
| Doctoral advisor | Julian Schwinger |
Margaret Galland Kivelson, born on October 21, 1928, is a famous American scientist. She is a space physicist and planetary scientist. She is a distinguished professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Since 2010, she has also been a research scientist at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Kivelson studies the magnetospheres of planets. These are the magnetic bubbles around planets like Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. She also studies Jupiter's Galilean moons. She led the team for the magnetometer on the Galileo Orbiter. This spacecraft collected data around Jupiter for eight years.
She has worked on many other space missions. These include NASA's Themis mission and the Europa Clipper Mission. She also helped with the Cassini mission to Saturn. Currently, she is involved with the European JUICE mission to Jupiter. Dr. Kivelson has written over 350 science papers. She also helped write a textbook about space physics.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Margaret Kivelson was born in New York City on October 21, 1928. Her father was a doctor, and her mother had studied physics. From high school, Margaret knew she wanted to work in science. However, she was not sure if she would succeed.
Her uncle suggested she become a dietitian. He thought it would be hard for a woman to have a science career. But Margaret did not listen to this advice. She decided to study physics instead.
In 1946, she was accepted into Radcliffe College. This was Harvard's college for women at the time. She earned her first degree from Radcliffe in 1950. She then completed her master's degree in 1952. In 1957, she earned her Ph.D. in physics from Harvard.
Career in Science
Dr. Kivelson finished her Ph.D. in 1957. Her research was about how high-energy electrons behave. From 1955 to 1971, she worked as a consultant at the RAND Corporation. This company is in Santa Monica, California.
At RAND, she studied how plasmas and electron gases interact. She used advanced math for her research. In 1965, she took a break from RAND. She went to Boston with her husband. There, she did research at Harvard and MIT. This experience made her want to work in a university.
In 1967, Dr. Kivelson joined UCLA as a research geophysicist. She quickly became a full professor in 1980. She even led the Earth and Space Sciences department twice. She was also on important boards for Harvard and NASA. In 2009, she became a distinguished professor emerita at UCLA. In 2010, she also started working at the University of Michigan.
Amazing Discoveries
Dr. Kivelson has made many important discoveries in her career. One of her biggest achievements was finding a magnetic field inside Ganymede. Ganymede is one of Jupiter's largest moons. This was a very exciting discovery!
She also found strong evidence for an ocean under the icy surface of Europa. Europa is another moon of Jupiter. This discovery suggests that life could possibly exist there. Her work has also helped scientists understand how waves behave in Earth's magnetosphere.
Dr. Kivelson has written or co-written over 350 scientific papers. Her work has been cited by other scientists more than 12,000 times. This shows how important her contributions are to space physics.
Personal Life
Margaret Kivelson was married to Daniel Kivelson. He was a chemistry professor at UCLA. They had two children together. Their son, Steven Kivelson, is also a professor. He studies condensed matter at Stanford University. Margaret, Daniel, and both of their children all graduated from Harvard University.
Overcoming Challenges
Dr. Kivelson has shared stories about being a woman scientist. When she started college, her family joked she was only looking for a "Mrs." degree. This meant they thought she was just going to find a husband. Before World War II, classes at Radcliffe and Harvard were separate for men and women. But when she attended after the war, classes were mixed. She was often the only woman in her science classes.
Her Ph.D. advisor, Julian Schwinger, had over 70 graduate students. Margaret Kivelson was his only female student. In 1954, she had her first child. After that, some people criticized her for continuing to work as a mother. In 1955, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband. She worked part-time while finishing her Ph.D. A few months after getting her degree in 1957, she had her second child.
In 1973, Dr. Kivelson received a Guggenheim Fellowship. This allowed her to work at the Imperial College in London. She said this fellowship made her feel like a serious scientist for the first time. It gave her confidence and status.
Awards and Honors
Dr. Kivelson has received many awards for her amazing work:
- Guggenheim Fellowship (1973–74)
- Radcliffe Graduate Society Medal (1983)
- Harvard University's 350th Anniversary Alumni Medal (1986)
- Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989)
- Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (1992)
- NASA Group Achievement Award (1995, 1996)
- Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1999)
- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1998)
- Fellow of the American Physical Society (2001)
- Fleming Medal of the American Geophysical Union (2005)
- Alfven Medal of the European Geophysical Union (2005)
- Elected member of the American Philosophical Society (2005)
- Gerard P. Kuiper Prize of the American Astronomical Society (2017)
- Jean Dominique Cassini Medal of the European Geosciences Union (2019)
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2019)
- Elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society (2020)
- James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society (2021)
See also
