Alice K. Harding

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, and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, in 1979. It was there that Alice met David Scott Harding, and they got married on Long Island in 1977.

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 consist of high-energy particle acceleration and radiation processes in pulsars, highly magnetized neutron stars (magnetars), gamma-ray bursts, and supernova remnants.

Harding works as part of astrophysics collaborations including the NICER Science Team, the Fermi Collaboration Part of her research involves the use of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. She currently works at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Visiting Scientist in the Theoretical Division.

Awards and honours Harding was awarded the status of Fellow in the American Physical Society, after being nominated by their Division of Astrophysics in 1991, 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.

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