Sarah Stewart Receives MacArthur "Genius Grant"

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced its 2018 class of MacArthur Fellows, and among the 25 recipents of the coveted "genius grants" is planetary scientist and AAS member Sarah T. Stewart (University of California, Davis).

The MacArthur Foundation cites Stewart for "advancing new theories of how celestial collisions give birth to planets and their natural satellites, such as the Earth and Moon." On her website, Stewart notes that she also does "laboratory measurements of the equation of state and rheological properties of planetary materials using shock wave techniques" and performs "experimental and computational studies of impact processes to interpret the formation, resurfacing history, physical properties, and internal structure of planets and small bodies."

In 2009 Stewart was honored with the AAS Division for Planetary Sciences' Harold C. Urey Prize for outstanding achievements in planetary science by an early-career researcher. From 2015 to 2017 she served as president of the American Geophysical Union's Planetary Sciences Section.

As described on the Foundation's website, the MacArthur Fellowship is "a $625,000, no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential.... Although nominees are reviewed for their achievements, the fellowship is not a lifetime achievement award, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential. Indeed, the purpose of the MacArthur Fellows Program is to enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society."

Congratulations, Sarah!