Adriana Christian Ocampo Uria

Adriana C. Ocampo Uria (born January 5, 1955) is a Colombian-Argentine-American planetary geologist and a former Science Program Manager at NASA Headquarters. In 1970, Ocampo emigrated to California and completed her Bachelor degree at California State University, Los Angeles, then she did her Master in Sciences at California State University, Northridge and finished her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands. This research contributed significantly to the understanding of this impact crater. and to Belize K/Pg ejecta sites, which she discovered and are the subject of her MSc and PhD.

As a former lead Program Executive for NASA's New Frontiers Program she had oversight responsibility for the program. The New Frontier Program is currently composed of the mission New Horizons, Juno, OSIRIS ReX, and Dragonfly. She also was the Program Executive of the Discovery Program Lucy mission Lucy Mission the first mission to explore the Trojans asteroids. Ocampo was the Program Executive of the Juno mission to Jupiter Juno Mission. and New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. She received NASA 'Exceptional Performance award , and the Woman of the Year in Science award from the Comisión Femenil in 1992.

Early life and education Adriana C. Ocampo Uria was born on January 5, 1955, in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her mother is Teresa Uria Ocampo, and her father is Victor Alberto Ocampo. Her family moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then emigrated to Pasadena, California, in 1970, at the age of 14, where she was able to study physics and calculus. In 1973, while a junior in high school, she got a summer job at the JPL, where she analyzed images sent by the Viking spacecraft. In 1980, Ocampo (run)attained U.S. citizenship.

NASA career

Adriana Ocampo started in 2015 to serve as the lead program executive for the New Frontiers Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The New Frontiers Program mission is to take the top priorities and goals of the planetary scientific community and address them employing medium-class spacecraft missions that furthers the understanding of the Solar System. Ocampo has had an asteroid name after her in recognition of her contributions to space exploration. She was a member of the imaging team for the Viking program where she planned, analyzed, and produced images of Mars' satellites Phobos and Deimos, published by NASA in 1984 and later utilized to plan the Soviet Phobos mission. During this mission the team detected down through the dense atmosphere of Venus.

The Chicxulub impact crater is located underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It was hypothesized that this crater was formed by an asteroid leading to mass extinctions on Earth. This was previously postulated in the early 1980s by the physicist Luis Walter Alvarez and his son the geologist Walter Alvarez. In 1991, NASA and The Planetary Society Pasadena sponsored an expedition led by Ocampo and Pope. Ocampo was awarded her master thesis on the Chicxulub impact crater at California State University.

Ocampo led the Juno mission which was in charge of developing strategic plans and recommendations for the research of Jupiter.

In 2002, Ocampo was named one of the 50 Most Important Women in Science by the science magazine Discover.

Asteroid 177120 Ocampo Uría, discovered by American astronomer Marc Buie at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in 2003, was named after Adriana Ocampo.

In March 2022, Ocampo was honored at the Latin America Lifetime Awards virtual ceremony for her inspiring legacy as a scientist.