Next level visionaries

Appointed the 16th President of Worcester Polytechnic University (WPI), Laurie Leshin, geochemist and space scientist, started her education and academic career at Arizona State University.

Over the past 20 years, Laurie Leshin established herself as an academic and administrative leader, having cultivated an impressive career at NASA, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Arizona State University (ASU), and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Leshin is the first woman to head Worcester Polytechnic University (WPI) in its nearly 150-year history. Her service begins on July 1, 2014.

“Laurie Leshin is impressive by any measure,” said Warner Fletcher, chairman of the WPI Board of Trustees. “In addition to bringing exceptional academic credentials from some of our nation’s leading universities, Laurie also brings tremendous experience and expertise from her time spent in leadership positions at NASA. She is an academic who understands the role of – and the potential for – academia in the larger world. Laurie has the rare capacity to work as successfully with students and faculty as she does with the White House and Congress. She is well positioned to take WPI to an even higher level of excellence and prominence. We are proud to have her at the helm of this fine university.”

Most recently Leshin served as Dean of the School of Science at Rensselaer, where she established new interdisciplinary research directions and opportunities; implemented significant curriculum innovations; established fundraising initiatives; increased the faculty and their research endeavors; improved diversity, and significantly increased the School of Science’s communication and outreach. Leshin also continued her extensive research and national service in three important ways: through her work as a funded science team member for the Mars Curiosity Rover mission; through her appointment by President Obama to the Advisory Board for the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum; and through her appointment by former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to the Advisory Board of the US Merchant Marine Academy.

Prior to joining Rensselaer, Leshin was a senior leader at NASA in science, exploration and technology with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She was also part of the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., where she was involved in daily oversight and planning for the implementation of the largest proposed shift in human spaceflight activities since the end of the Apollo program. She worked extensively with Congress, the White House, industry, and the public to communicate NASA’s plans and influence support for – and authorization of – its vision and programs.

Leshin was a scientist and professor at ASU from 1998 to 2005. Her successful research program focused on geochemical analysis of meteorites, the origin of the solar system, water on Mars, and astrobiology. In 2001 she was named the Dee and John Whiteman Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences, and would go on to help lead the development of the first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary School of Earth and Space Exploration at the university. Leshin also served as director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at ASU, which houses the largest university-based meteorite collection in the world.

Leshin earned a BS in Chemistry from Arizona State University in 1987. From there, she studied at the California Institute of Technology, where she earned both an MS in geochemistry in 1989 and a Ph.D. in geochemistry in 1994. Leshin has received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, and in 2011 she received NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal. She is a recipient of the Meteoritical Society’s Nier Prize for her research. She has served on the Board of Directors of Women in Aerospace, the Council of the American Geophysical Union.

The International Astronomical Union recognized her contributions to planetary science by naming asteroid “4922 Leshin.”