Contributed by Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane, recipient of the 2023 Service Award, awarded at the 2023 Meteoritical Society Meeting. Read the citation for the 2023 Service Award published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
Madam President, members of the Meteoritical Society -- Good morning.
I would like to warmly thank Janice Bishop for nominating me, Uwe Reimold, David Baratoux and Ludovic Ferrière for their letters of support and for carrying this nomination, as well as the members of the selection committee for honouring me.
With this award I pay tribute to my country, Morocco, and his majesty King Mohamed VI.
I dedicate this prize to my family. First, to my parents: my father was an autodidact who mastered Arabic, French and English. He was born in the countryside and emigrated on foot to Casablanca in the 1940s. My mother was my model of a modern woman, open-minded and respecting Moroccan culture and way of life. She is one of the first women to have studied in Morocco under the supervision of the King Mohamed V in Rabat. She chose her husband, she was a school director, she drove a car, supported the family, and was financially independent. My parents treated my brothers, sister, and me the same. They instilled in us the fundamental values of work, rigor, honesty, merit, and respect. These values guide all my actions.
I would like to express my love and my thanks to my husband Mohamed for his continued, unfailing support, as well as to my children Nora, Rym and Aniss who accepted and understood my repeated travels and absences at home. Without their support and love, my journey would certainly not have been the same.
I would like to thank Professor Albert Jambon who supervised my two doctoral theses, the first on noble gases and the second on the intensity of shock in meteorites. He taught me the basics of scientific research. He opened the doors to the fantastic world of meteorites for me, and I can't thank him enough for that. I also would like to mention Professor Bernard Marty who was my thesis co-supervisor and guided me at the very beginning of my noble gases analyses as this theme was being introduced in France. Albert and Bernard were my mentors and model researchers that I looked up to.
I joined the Meteoritical Society in 2002 and the NomCom in 2004. My first MetSoc meeting was in Gatlinburg. I keep special memories of it: my first trip to the US and my first meeting with several of you who have since become very close friends. The MetSoc meeting is my annual meeting with my large family that welcomed me among its members and gave me the opportunity to represent my country on several committees. I feel privileged by the trust you place in me. In return, I was proud and happy to welcome you in 2014 in my beloved country, Morocco.
I had the pleasure of sharing my passion with my doctoral students for whom I have so much affection and respect. For me, they represent the continuity of my work as they carry on the development of meteoritics and planetary sciences in Morocco and elsewhere in North Africa. I wish them success where I may have stumbled. Again, this would not have been possible without your support at various labs all over the world.
One of the greatest achievements of recent years is the ATTARIK Foundation. Many thanks to those who allowed its creation and development.
To all my friends here and to those who are far away -- I thank you again for your support, your confidence in me, and your love. You cannot imagine how important this kind of recognition is to me as a woman-scientist, an Arab and a Muslim. It will carry me, nourish me, and allow me to keep giving the best of myself to my great scientific family of the Meteoritical Society.