Energetic particle transport in the Earth's inner magnetosphere
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
Plasma wave excitation and wave-particle interactions
Honors, Awards and Accomplishments
Member, College of Engineering Research Strategy Committee
Awarded National Research Council Resident Research Associateship at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Awarded NASA Graduate Student Research Fellowship
Outstanding Student Paper Award, American Geophysical Union
Refereed papers for leading peer-reviewed journals in space science and proposals for NASA and NSF
Dissertation was first self-consistent calculation of ineterhemispheric photoelectron transport through plasmasphere, from ionospheric sources to scattering into the geomagnetic trap.
With Dr. George Khazanov and others, developed method to solve the Vlasov equation in an arbitrary electric potential structure
With Dr. Janet Kozyra and others, conclusively showed that the initial decay rate of the stormtime ring current is dominated by dayside outflow
With Dr. Khazanov and others, developed first local time dependent global model of relativistic electron transport, for uses such as simulating artificial beam injections and the Van Allen radiation belts
Professional Service
NASA Living With a Star TR&T Steering Committee, 2007 - present
Chair, NASA Geospace Management and Operations Working Group (G-MOWG), 2005 - 2007
Research Area Coordinator, NSF GEM Program, Inner magnetoshpere/Storms Campaign, 2003 - present