Astronomy 48 - Weather in Interplanetary Space

Lecturers

Manfred Bester: Manfred Bester received both a diploma degree (1981) and a Ph.D. (1984) in Physics from the University of Cologne, Germany. Following his graduation, he continued to work with the University of Cologne in the field of millimeter and submillimeter wave molecular spectroscopy, both in the laboratory and at the High-alpine Research Station Gornergrat, Switzerland. In 1986 he joined the group of Prof. Charles H. Townes at Space Sciences Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley, where he held positions as Post-doctoral Research Physicist, Assistant and Associate Research Physicist. From 1989 to 1997 he held a position as Director of the Infrared Spatial Interferometer at Mount Wilson Observatory. In 1997 he joined the Space Physics Research Group at Space Sciences Laboratory. As a member of the HESSI team, he is the Lead Scientist for the Mission Operations Center and is responsible for the implementation of the Berkeley Ground Station. His current research interest is in the field of solar gamma ray spectroscopy and in the automation of mission operations for magnetospheric constellation missions. He has published in the areas of millimeter and submillimeter laboratory spectroscopy, radio astronomy, high-resolution infrared imaging, long-baseline interferometry, and astrophysics of late-type stars. Dr. Bester is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Optical Society of America, the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the American Geophysical Union.

Dave Brain: Dr. Brain was born in Maryland, and in the 2nd grade had to write an essay on what he wanted to be when he grew up. After much thought, he decided he wanted to be a soccer player, a postman (like his grandfather), an astronaut, and an American Indian chief. His interest in the planets and space exploration has stayed with him through the present, and he can't believe that someone is willing to pay him to think about Mars all day. Dave went to college at Rice University in Houston, and has bachelors degrees in Physics and in Mathematics. He received Masters and PhD degrees in Planetary Science at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and since 2003 has been a scientist at Berkeley's Space Sciences Lab. Dave studies magnetic fields, charged particles, and radiation at Mars, Venus, and planets around other stars, and has an interest in the magnetic fields and upper atmospheres of all solar system objects. Dave particularly enjoys interacting with non-scientists, and has given public lectures, done radio and print interviews, taught introductory astronomy to college students, and consulted for a college astronomy textbook.

Anna Butterworth: Dr. Butterworth, has a long-held strong interest in E/PO and has recently worked with the Teller Education Group at the Lawrence Livermore National labs in their Science on Saturday program. As a member of the Genesis Science Team she has appeared on national UK television featuring Genesis in “Solar Science” (BBC/Open University, May 1999) and as a PhD student in “Planet Doctors” (BBC/Open University, May 1995). She has presented Genesis to public audiences at the Science Museum, London, 2001 and Wessex Astronomy Society, 2002, UK; Since 1994 she has presented workshops in open days, advanced learning days (Age 11), a county career workshop (Ages 16-18) and numerous school visits as guest science speaker (ages 8 to 18).

Jonathan Eastwood: Dr Eastwood received his PhD in physics from Imperial College London, UK in 2003, where he specialized in studies of collisionless plasma shocks. He then spent two years working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as a National Research Council Resident Research Associate, before moving to the Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley in 2005. At the moment he is involved in the new (Berkeley led) mission THEMIS, and uses data from this and other scientific space missions such as Cluster to understand the basic physics that controls space weather.
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Harald Frey: Dr. Harald Frey got his Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of Leipzig in former East Germany on applied nuclear physics. Until 1991 he worked in the research center of the largest East German semiconductor company before he changed his field of work to geophysics and joined the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, close to Munich. In 1997 he joined the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley and since then he has been interested in all kinds of light emissions from the upper atmosphere, primarily aurora and sprites. Dr. Frey conducted several scientific campaigns to study the aurora from the ground in northern Europe, Canada, and Alaska. He is now primarily using auroral observations made from space by the NASA-IMAGE or the Taiwanese FORMOSAT-2 spacecraft.

Thomas Immel: Dr. Thomas Immel got his Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, AK. He is an Assistant Research Physicist at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley. His expertise lies in interpretation of remote-sensing data and modeling of physical processes in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. His work has included ultraviolet imaging observations from four NASA missions, Dynamics Explorer 1, Polar, Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE), and Thermosphere, Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED). Imaging of Earth from space has lead naturally to some specific projects oriented toward broadening the reach of NASA's scientific results. In 2002, Dr. Immel worked in collaboration with London Fieldworks in the artistic installation called Little Earth. He took part in preview presentations at The Lab in San Francisco where a panel discussed the insight and importance of the discoveries of C. T. R. Wislon and Kristian Birkeland, two physicists of the early 20th century who made their greatest discoveries when isolated in remote observatories atop mountain peaks.

Bryan Mendez: Bryan hails from Traverse City, Michigan where the dark sky enthralled him from a very early age and inspired him to study astronomy. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1997 with degrees in Astronomy, Physics, and Saxophone Performance. Bryan continued his education at the University of California at Berkeley, where he researched the large scale flow of galaxies in the nearby Universe by measuring their distances. He received a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley in 2002. Bryan now works in the SEGway team to educate and inspire others about the wonder and beauty of the Universe. His work in space science education and public outreach involves developing programs for the public through the Web and museums, developing classroom materials for students in K-12 classrooms, and conducting professional development for science educators.

Mark Moldwin: Dr. Moldwin is currently a Professor of Space Physics within the University of California - Los Angeles' Department of Earth and Space Sciences and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. Prior to joining the faculty of UCLA in August of 2000, Dr. Moldwin was a Professor of Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Space and Atmospheric Sciences and Non-proliferation and International Security groups at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Moldwin joined the lab in 1992 after receiving his Ph.D. in Astronomy/Space Physics from Boston University. He was awarded a B.A. in Physics with Honors from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in 1987. Dr. Moldwin's primary research interests are magnetospheric and heliospheric plasma physics, and pre-college space science education and outreach. Prof. Moldwin has taught over a dozen different physics and space science courses, was awarded Florida Tech's Teaching Excellence Award and is rated as a Top Ten Professor by the Associated Student's of UCLA. mmoldwin@ucla.edu http://www.ess.ucla.edu/faculty/moldwin .

Marit Oieroset: Dr. Marit Oieroset received a Ph.D. at the University of Oslo in Norway in 1996 on the topic of Earth’s magnetosphere and aurora. In 1992-1993 she taught courses at the Gjoevik College of Engineering, Norway. Since 1998 she has worked at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) as a Research Physicist studying a broad range of space physics topics including magnetic reconnection, formation of Earth’s plasma sheet, ionospheric outflow, and the solar wind’s interaction with Mars. In addition to her research experience, she has been interviewed for several popular science reports. In Norway, she was interviewed for a radio show and wrote for a popular science magazine. More recently, Dr. Oieroset, has been interviewed by newspapers, such as the New York Times, University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and NASA personal relations personnel for UCB and NASA press releases, internet articles, and an interview by Earth and Sky Radio Series. This radio show entitled “Magnetic Contact” aired on February 17, 2002 and can be found at the Earth and Sky website.

Laura Peticolas: Dr. Laura Peticolas received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 2000. Her thesis and post-doctoral research topic was Earth’s aurora. In 2002, she joined the Science Education Gateway (SEGway) program, at UCB’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). SEGway is a group of educator-scientists working to present the latest space science research to students, teachers, and the general public. Dr. Peticolas is the E/PO lead for the FAST, THEMIS and STEREO-IMPACT E/PO programs. She has conducted many teacher professional development workshops. Dr. Peticolas has developed customer-focused E/PO products, such as the STEREO-IMPACT and THEMIS E/PO-funded teachers’ guides, "Exploring Magnetism in the Solar Wind" and "Exploring Magnetism.” The OSS Product Review rated these guides as excellent. Dr. Peticolas actively facilitates scientist involvement in E/PO and has worked as a scientist in SECEF programs, such as the Exploratorium’s Ancient Observatory webcast in December 2004. She has participated in the “One Earth One Universe” workshop to develop an awareness of Native Americans’ needs and way of knowing

Greg Schultz: Greg has been with UC Berkeley's Center for Science Education at the Space Sciences Lab since 1999, right after finishing his PhD in the UCLA Astronomy & Astrophysics program. He came to Berkeley after being selected for an NSF science education postdoctoral fellowship, by the PFSMETE program. Following three years of the NSF fellowship, Greg was subsequently promoted into the staff position listed above, continuing his science education efforts with the group. His work has been primarily focused on (pre-service) teacher education, (in-service) teacher professional development, and science curriculum development. Within these focus areas, Greg's research & development activities in science education have involved effectively integrating or utilizing astronomy & space science, and have been grounded in constructivist and inquiry-oriented design and pedagogy. He's developed, coordinated and implemented such projects primarily for the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (SECEF), part of the NASA Science Mission Directorate's national education/outreach support network.

Isabel Hawkins: As Research Astronomer and Senior Fellow in Science Education, Isabel Hawkins conducts research in astronomy/space science education, and is Director of the Center for Science Education at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). Dr. Hawkins' primary area of astrophysics expertise is in chemical abundances of the interstellar medium. As Director of SSL's Center for Science Education, Dr. Hawkins is principal investigator of several national education initiatives, including NASA Office of Space Science's Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum (in collaboration with Goddard Space Flight Center), and Project FIRST (Fostering Reading Through Science and Technology) funded by Calspace. Dr. Hawkins has more than 80 astrophysics and science education research publications in refereed journals, conference proceedings, conference abstract bulletins, and popular magazines. As part of SSL's teacher professional development program, Dr. Hawkins developed a Satellite Mission Operations Course for science teachers. Dr. Hawkins received her B.S. in physics with High Honors from the University of California, Riverside, where she also became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received her Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1986. She is a member of NASA's Office of Space Science Education Council and a former member of NASA's Space Science Advisory Committee.

Randolf Klein: Dr. Klein received his diploma degree in Physics from the RWTH Aachen University in 1996 and his PhD in Astrophysics at the University Jena in 1999, both in Germany. In Jena he began to study massive star formation especially the properties of dust in regions showing massive star forming through infrared and radio observations. After receiving his PhD, he continued to work in the field of infrared astronomy but added instrumentation. Dr. Klein joined the Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial Physics near Munich, Germany, in 2003 to take part in the development of FIFI LS, a far-infrared spectrometer for the US-German airborne observatory SOFIA. Since 2005, he is in Berkeley to continue his research on the earliest stages of massive star formation and to further develop and later operate FIFI LS here.