
Michael W. Liemohn
Professor
Location
1420 Climate & Space Research Building 2455 Hayward Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143
Additional Title(s)
- Director, University of Michigan Space Institute
Primary Website
Related links
Education
- Ph.D., M.S., Atmospheric and Space Science, University of Michigan, 1997
- B.S., Physics and Math, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, 1992
Teaching
- Fall Term 2021: CLIMATE/SPACE 551, Advanced Fluid Dynamics
- Winter Term 2021: SPACE/CLIMATE 423, Data Analysis and Visualization for Geoscientists
Professional Service
Some recent/big service roles:
- Director, University of Michigan Space Institute, 2019 – present
- Co-Chair, AGU Partnership Task Force, 2020 – present
- U-M ADVANCE office STRIDE committee, 2019 – present
- NASA Heliophysics Advisory Committee, Chair (2018-present; member since 2014)
- NASA Science Committee, member, 2018 – present
- AGU Meetings Committee, 2017 – present
- AGU Space Physics and Aeronomy Section Executive Committee, 2013 – 2019
- Editor-in-Chief, JGR-Space Physics, December 2013 – December 2019 (6 years)
- Chair, NSF GEM Steering Committee, 2009 – 2011
Research Interests
Plasma transport in the ionosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth and other solar system bodies.
- Energetic particle transport in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere
- Electron and ion transport in the Mars space environment
- Kinetic theory and modeling
- Interactions between hot and cold plasma components
- Plasmaspheric dynamics and modeling
- Ring current dynamics and modeling
- Global magnetospheric dynamics and modeling
- Mars pick-up ion sources, motion, and fate
- Solar wind and photoelectrons in the strong crustal field region of Mars
- Plasma wave excitation and wave-particle interactions
- Giant planet plasma dynamics
- Solar wind electron physics
Biography
- I had a postdoctoral position at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center before returning to the University of Michigan as an Assistant Research Scientist in late 1998. I then became tenure-track faculty in 2006.
- PhD committees chaired or co-chaired: 11 successfully defended (Xiaohua Fang, Jichun Zhang, Xia Cai, Raluca Ilie, Shannon Curry, Roxanne Katus, Shaosui Xu, Lois Smith, Blake Johnson, Abigail Azari, Alicia Petersen) and 6 in progress (Sinh Trung from Physics, Alex Shane, Brian Swiger, Agnit Mukhopadhyay, Kaitlin Doublestein, and Erika Hathaway)
- Prospective PhD students: I typically have 3 or 4 PhD students at any one time, which means that I take a new grad student most years. My current projects span global magnetospheric magnetospheric dynamics, energetic particle transport, and MI-coupling for the space environments of not only Earth but also other planets.
- Prospective undergrad researchers: I typically have 1 or 2 undergrad students working on directed research projects, via SPACE 499. After a term or two, if the working relationship is mutually agreeable, then I will sometimes continue supporting an undergrad researcher as an hourly employee.
Awards
- U-M College of Engineer Ted Kennedy Family Team Excellence Award, 2019
- U-M College of Engineering Monroe-Brown Foundation Education Excellence Award, 2018
- Outstanding Research Scientist Award, University of Michigan, 2002
- Refereed papers for leading peer-reviewed journals in space science and proposals for many agencies
Publications
- As of October 2021, author or co-author of 223 peer-reviewed publications in print, press, or submitted (60 first author) and 666 scientific presentations (87 invited).
- Please see my CV (link above) for more information about my publications and research activities.
- Over my 6 years as EiC of JGR Space Physics, I wrote 300 posts at my blog: JGR-Space Physics blog
- My ISI Web of Science ResearcherID number is H-8703-2012.
- My ORCID number is 0000-0002-7039-2631.