Education:

Ph.D. Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science, University of Michigan

M.S. Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

B.S. Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Biography: ^top

I  am a space plasma physicist interested in the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres, including that of the Earth. I work very closely with and am part of the operating teams for several Michigan-led plasma ion composition spectrometers on NASA’s MESSENGER, ACE and Wind spacecraft.  I helped develop the the first comprehensive plasma composition dataset at L1 from the ACE/SWICS instrument.  It is still well-used today and available at the ACE Science Center. One of my main interests in science is studying Mercury’s magnetosphere, mostly using data from our Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS), which was built at Michigan (1998-2003) and orbited Mercury on MESSENGER 2011-2015.  I work closely with a new plasma composition instrument, the Heavy Ion Sensor, part of the Solar Wind Analyzers (SWA) suite on ESA’s Solar Orbiter, which launched on 9 Feb 2020.  I am thrilled to be part of this new and exciting mission, which will deliver an unprecedented view of the Sun and the solar wind.