Dr. Bethany Chidester is a staff scientist in Physical Chemistry and Spectroscopy at Los Alamos National Laboratory, specializing in the experimental study of materials under extreme high pressures and temperatures. She recently conducted the first shock temperature measurements on olivine and iron-bearing enstatite, two of the most abundant mineral compositions in Earth and the other terrestrial planets in our Solar System. Those measurements have been used to inform models of the Moon-forming giant impact. Previously, Dr. Chidester’s research constrained the abundance of long-lived radioactive elements in Earth’s metallic core, assessing their impact on the planet’s magnetic field through geologic time.
She earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Toledo, a Ph.D. in geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago, and held postdoctoral positions at Sandia National Labs, UC Davis, and was a Director’s Postdoc Fellow at LANL.