Lindy Elkins-Tanton is a planetary scientist, the Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche mission, and Arizona State University Vice President of the Interplanetary Initiative. Her research concerns the formation and subsequent evolution of rocky planets, and processes of education for the future of society. She has led four field expeditions in Siberia.
Asteroid (8252) Elkins-Tanton is named for her, as is the mineral elkinstantonite. In 2018 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, in 2021 she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2022 William Morrow published her memoir, A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman. Elkins-Tanton received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from MIT.
