Linda Spilker

{{short description|American planetary scientist}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2018}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Linda Spilker

| birth_name = Linda Joyce Bies

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1955}}

| birth_place =

| nationality = American

| fields = Planetary Science

| workplaces = Jet Propulsion Laboratory

| alma_mater = {{plainlist|

}}

| doctoral_advisor = Christopher T. Russell

| thesis_title = Wave structure in planetary rings

| thesis_year = 1992

| awards = {{plainlist|

}}

}}

Linda Spilker is an American planetary scientist who served as the project scientist for the Cassini mission exploring the planet Saturn. Her research interests include the evolution and dynamics of Saturn's rings. She is presently the Project Scientist for the Voyager missions. {{Cite web |last=Spilker |first=Linda |title=JPL Science: Linda Spilker |url=https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/spilker/ |access-date=2024-02-17 |website=science.jpl.nasa.gov |language=en}}

Career

Spilker received a B.A.in Physics from California State University, Fullerton in 1977 and an M.S. in Physics from California State University, Los Angeles in 1983. She obtained a Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics from UCLA in 1992. She joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1977, initially working on the Voyager missions that were launched the same year. She became a Cassini mission scientist in 1990. In 1997, she was the editor of a NASA publication that summarizes the mission's legacy. In 2010 she became the Cassini mission project scientist, a role in which she directed the entire team's scientific investigations. She has appeared as herself in multiple television documentary programs, including several in the PBS Nova series.

Honors and awards

  • NASA Exceptional Service Medal (2013)
  • NASA Group Achievement Award (2011, 2009, 2000, 1998, 1982–1989)
  • NASA Scientific Achievement Award (1982)

See also

References

{{reflist|colwidth=25em

|refs=

{{cite web|title=Linda Spilker|url=https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Spilker/|website=science.jpl.nasa.gov}}

{{cite news|title=NASA's Cassini Begins Its Final Mission Before Self-Destruction|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/04/05/522756844/nasas-cassini-begins-its-final-mission-before-self-destruction|work=NPR.org|date=April 5, 2017}}

{{cite web|title=Linda Spilker|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1995978/|website=IMDb}}

{{cite web|title=NASA Agency Honor Awards|url=https://searchpub.nssc.nasa.gov/servlet/sm.web.Fetch/2013_Agency_Honor_Awards_Brochure.pdf?rhid=1000&did=1626944&type=released|pages=25|date=2013}}

{{cite web|title=Linda Spilker, planetary scientist|url=https://scicom.ucsc.edu/publications/QandA/2015/spilker.html|website=scicom.ucsc.edu|language=en}}

{{cite book|title=Passage to a ringed world : the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan|date=1997|publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration SP-533|url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-533.pdf|editor1-last=Spilker|editor1-first=Linda|ref=SP-533}}

{{cite news|title=NASA's Cassini Mission Conducts Daring Dive through Saturn's Rings|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-cassini-mission-conducts-daring-dive-through-saturns-rings/|work=Scientific American|date=April 26, 2017|language=en}}

{{cite book|last1=Meltzer|first1=Michael|title=The Cassini-Huygens Visit to Saturn: An Historic Mission to the Ringed Planet|date=2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-07607-2|page=287}}

{{cite news|title=Saturn ruled this scientist's life for 40 years — here's why she needs NASA to go back after Cassini's death|url=http://www.businessinsider.com/voyager-mom-linda-spilker-why-nasa-should-go-back-saturn-2017-9|work=Business Insider|date=September 17, 2017|language=en}}

{{cite news|last1=Kaplan|first1=Sarah|title=Cassini was the mission of a lifetime for this NASA scientist. Now she must say goodbye.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/09/14/for-this-nasa-scientist-cassini-was-the-mission-of-a-lifetime-now-she-must-say-goodbye/|newspaper=Washington Post|date=September 14, 2017}}

}}

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Category:American scientists

Category:Living people

Category:1955 births

Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Category:California State University, Fullerton alumni

Category:Recipients of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal

Category:American planetary scientists

Category:American women planetary scientists

Category:NASA people