Meenakshi Wadhwa is a planetary scientist and educator who studies the formation and evolution of the Solar System through analysis of planetary materials including Meteorites, Moon rocks and other Extraterrestrial Samples returned by Spacecraft Missions.

Meenakshi  is currently director and Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and is additionally appointed as a Distinguished Visiting Scientist and Mars Sample Return Principal Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

She was previously director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University (2006-2019), where she oversaw the curation of one of the largest university-based meteorite collections. She has also searched for meteorites in Antarctica with the Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program.

Among many laurels, Asteroid 8356 has been named 8356 Wadhwa in recognition of Meenakshi's contributions to meteoritics and planetary science and she is a recipient of the J. Lawrence Smith medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award and  the Guggenheim Fellowship.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

• Leadership is a journey
• What and who are most Important
• What does success and impact mean to you
• Making education and science more accessible
• Inequitable distribution, Talent vs opportunities

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