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Lindy Elkins-Tanton is a planetary scientist and the Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche space mission. She is Director of the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. Previously, she was a Vice President at Arizona State University, Director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution for Science, and faculty at MIT. Elkins-Tanton’s research concerns the formation and evolution of rocky planets, volcanic activity and extinctions on Earth, and the art and science of creating effective teams and of future-facing educational practices. Asteroid (8252) Elkins-Tanton is named for her, as is the mineral elkinstantonite. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Elkins-Tanton received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from MIT. Her book Mission Ready: How to Build Teams that Perform under Pressure will be released in April, 2026.