Alice Harding

Alice K. Harding
Harding in 2012
Alma mater	Bryn Mawr College (BA), University of Massachusetts-Amherst (PhD)
Awards	Bruno Rossi Prize 2013
Scientific career
Fields	Astrophysics
Institutions	NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Thesis	Propagation in Pulsar Magnetospheres: Effects of A Shearing Plasma  (1979)

Alice Kust Harding is an American astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Early life and education

Harding earned a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, in 1973, ^[1] and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, in 1979. ^[2]

Career and research

In 1980, Harding was appointed as astrophysicist in the Astrophysics Science Division at Goddard Space Flight Center, a post she has held since then. Her main research interests have been high-energy particle acceleration and radiation processes in pulsars, highly magnetized neutron stars (magnetars), gamma-ray bursts, and supernova remnants. ^[3]

Harding works as part of astrophysics collaborations including the NICER Science Team, the Fermi Collaboration ^[3] and AMEGO. ^[4] Part of her research involves the use of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. ^[5]

In the 2020s, Harding has been a part of various research projects concerning Pulsars and their plasmas in conjunction with her job at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her physics commentary about the ability of photons in Pulsars to produce pairs capable of radiating more photons, hence being responsible for the density of Pulsars, was also recently published in APS Physics. ^[6]

Awards and honours

Harding was awarded the status of Fellow ^[7] in the American Physical Society, ^[8] after being nominated by their Division of Astrophysics in 1991, ^[9] for pioneering investigation of the theory of pulsar atmospheres, including the pulsar wind and its role in accelerating particles to high energies, and for contributions to the theory of basic electromagnetic interactions in the presence of super-strong magnetic fields.

2012 John C. Lindsay Memorial Award is presented to Dr. Alice Harding. The award is presented by Deputy Director Dr. Colleen Hartman and Dr. Nicholas White.

In 1994, Harding received a NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1994. ^[1] In 2012, she was awarded the John C. Lindsay Memorial Award in recognition of her scientific achievements at Goddard. ^[10]

Harding was awarded the 2013 Bruno Rossi Prize together with Roger W. Romani for establishing a theoretical framework for understanding gamma-ray pulsars. ^{[11] [5]} She was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020. ^[12]

References

1. "NASA Astrophysicist Alice K. Harding '73 to Open Summer Series of Lectures by Prominent Women in Science". Bryn Mawr College News Archive. June 23, 2011. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
2. "Astronomy Alumni & PhD Theses". University of Massachusetts Amherst - College of Natural Sciences - Department of Astronomy. Archived from the original on September 12, 2016. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
3. "Alice K. Harding". APS. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
4. "AMEGO: Team". asd.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
5. Administrator, NASA (June 6, 2013). "NASA Goddard Astrophysicist Wins Prize for Pulsar Work". NASA. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
6. Gough, Evan (June 17, 2020). "Why Pulsars Are So Bright". Universe Today. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
7. "APS Fellowship". www.aps.org. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
8. "APS Fellow Archive". www.aps.org. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
9. "APS Fellows 1991". www.aps.org. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
10. "Lindsay Awards and Lectures". scicolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
11. "HEAD AAS Rossi Prize Winners | High Energy Astrophysics Division". head.aas.org. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
12. "AAS Fellows". AAS. Retrieved September 28, 2020.