Leigh Royden
Leigh "Wiki" Handy Royden (born October 15, 1955) is an American geologist.
Early life
[edit]Royden was born on October 15, 1955,[1] in Palo Alto, California. Royden's father was Halsey Royden, a mathematician.[citation needed]
Education
[edit]Royden received an A.B. degree in physics from Harvard University and a PhD in geology and geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[citation needed]
Career
[edit]Royden became a member of the faculty at MIT in 1988. She is director of MIT's Experimental Study Group.[2][3]
Royden has published on thermal subsidence at the northeastern continental margin of North America and on retreating subduction boundaries formed during the collision of continental tectonic plates.[2]
In 1990, she was awarded the Donath Medal (Young Scientist Award) by the Geological Society of America. Royden was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2004.[4] In 2011, she received the George P. Woollard Award.[2] In 2013, she was awarded the Stephan Mueller Medal by the European Geosciences Union.[3] In 2018, she was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5]
In 1994, Royden was one of 16 women faculty in the School of Science at MIT who drafted and co-signed a letter to the then-Dean of Science (now Chancellor of Berkeley) Robert Birgeneau, which started a campaign to highlight and challenge gender discrimination at MIT.[6]
Sport
[edit]She won silver with the eight at the 1975 World Rowing Championships and became US champion in the single sculls in 1975. She missed out on taking part in the 1976 Summer Olympics due to an ankle injury and accepted an offer of a summer internship at MIT instead.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ "Curriculum Vitae Professor Dr Leigh Royden" (PDF). German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Retrieved March 1, 2025.
- ^ a b c "2011 George P. Woollard Award". Geological Society of America.
- ^ a b "Leigh Royden". MIT.
- ^ "Fellows – Tectonophysics". American Geophysical Union. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
- ^ "Royden, Seager Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences". MIT. April 18, 2018.
- ^ Zernike, Kate (2023). The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science. New York, NY: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-9821-3183-8.
- ^ MIT's Experimental Study Group (January 10, 2024). ESG Profile: Leigh Royden. Retrieved February 28, 2025 – via YouTube.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- Living people
- American geophysicists
- Women geophysicists
- Harvard University alumni
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty
- Fellows of the American Geophysical Union
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- World Rowing Championships medalists for the United States
- American female rowers