Name Ines Cifuentes | ||
Inés Lucia Cifuentes (April 26, 1954 – December 16, 2014) was an English-born American seismologist and educator. From 1994 to 2005, she was director of the Carnegie Academy for Science Education.
The daughter of an American Jewish mother and a student from Ecuador, both working as economists for the United Nations, she was born in London. While growing up, she lived in Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay and Guatemala. She graduated from high school in Montgomery County, Maryland and went on to receive a BSc in physics from Swarthmore College and a MSc in geophysics from Stanford University. She was hired by the United States Geological Survey at Menlo Park. Even though her faculty advisor tried to make her leave the program, Cifuentes earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1988, becoming the first women to receive a doctorate in geophysics from Columbia. She pursued post-doctoral studies at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. On her return to the United States, she joined the Carnegie Academy for Science Education. In 2005, she joined the American Geophysical Union as is Manager of Education and Career Services.
Cifuentes married Frank Aikman; the couple had two children.
In 2006, she was named national Hispanic scientist of the year by the Museum of Science & Industry in Tampa. In 2007, she received the math and science award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.
She died of breast cancer at home in Takoma Park at the age of 60.