Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane, 2019 Outreach Lecturer
Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane is a Moroccan scientist in the fields of Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences and Geochemistry, and is Professor at the Hassan II University of Casablanca, Director of the GAIA Laboratory and Coordinator of the Centre of Research on Geo-ressources and Environment. Hasnaa was the first woman to graduate in Meteoritics in Morocco and Arabic countries. She obtained her first PhD, in Noble Gas Geochemistry, from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, France, and defended her “Thèse d’état” on Meteoritics at the Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco. She has received several awards for her research, including the ‘Paul Doistau-Emile Blutet’ in Planetology, Academy of Sciences, Institut de France in 2009, and the Moroccan National TV SNRT Trophy for ‘Distinguished Women in Morocco’ in 2016. In 2005, she became an elected member of the Nomenclature committee of the Meteoritical Society, serving for two terms, and became a member of the Council of the Meteoritical Society in 2010. In 2013, she was selected for the US ‘International Visitors Leadership Program IVLP’, ‘Women Innovations in Science and Engineering’ WISE program in MENA region, and in 2014 was awarded the US Department of State’s Women in Science Hall of Fame award. In April 2016, she was selected as an Africa Science Leadership Program Fellow (Pretoria, SA).
Hasnaa introduced Meteoritics and Impact Cratering to Morocco and the Arab countries and curricula on Cosmochemistry and Meteoritics to Moroccan universities. She is supervising several PhD theses on this topic in Morocco. She has studied and classified many meteorites from Morocco, including the most recent nine falls and, notably, the “Tissint” meteorite, the fifth eye-witnessed Martian meteorite fall. She has published a paper in Science magazine about Tissint, proving the origin of all Martian meteorites and the presence of fluids on Mars. She has organized several meetings in Casablanca, Morocco, including the 77th Meteoritical Society meeting in September 2014, organized for the first time in an Arab and Muslim country.