Claudia Alexander, a 2003 Women of Color Research Science and Technology Professional Achievement Award winner, passed away in 2015.
She worked at the United States Geological Survey studying plate tectonics and at the Ames Research Center observing Jovian moons, before moving to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1986.

She earned her Bachelor of Science in geophysics from the University of California (UCLA), Berkeley in 1983, a master’s degree in geophysics and space physics from UCLA in 1985, and a Ph.D. in space plasma physics from the University of Michigan in 1993.

Joining NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1986, Dr. Alexander, 56, contributed to space science research and flight experiments on spacecraft and provided direction for space mission development.

She was a United States project manager for the international Rosetta comet mission and was the last project manager of NASA’s Galileo mission to Jupiter. Until the time of her passing, she had served as project manager and scientist of NASA’s role in the European-led Rosetta mission to study comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

She contributed to scores of technical articles and authored the STEM science science-learning book series: Windows to Adventure, Book 12 (about Galaxies).

In 2003, she was awarded the Women of Color Emerald for Research & Engineering at the Women of Color Research Sciences and Technology Conference.

Dr. Alexander was a member of the American Geophysical Union and the Association for Women Geoscientists.

She died on July 11, 2015, in Arcadia, California of breast cancer.

Read more about Dr. Alexander here