Keiko Nakamura-Messenger, Planetary Scientist
Mineralogy and chemistry of primitive extraterrestrial samples
NASA Employee / KR
keiko.nakamura-1@nasa.gov
281-244-5027
Right after Nakamura-Messenger received PhD in material science from Kobe University, Japan in 2002, she joined ARES at JSC as a postdoctoral fellow. She is currently the deputy curation lead and a science team member for NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission. She is also a science team member of Japanese Hayabusa2 mission. Nakamura-Messenger has extensive experience with the curation and analysis of extraterrestrial materials, including: Stardust mission samples, interplanetary dust particles, and primitive meteorites.
She is the lead discoverer of two new minerals, Brownleeite (MnSi) and Wassonite (TiS). Asteroid 7862 Keikonakamura (1981 EE28) is named after her for her work revealed the existence of organic globules in meteorites, furthering understanding of organic material in the solar system.
- Robert M. Walker Laboratory for Space Science
- Lindsay Keller's group
- OSIRIS-REx mission