Nathan Schwadron

Nathan Schwadron is an Associate Professor of Astronomy at Boston University (BU) and the Science Operations Lead for the Interstellar Boundary Explorer Mission. Professor Schwadron was appointed an Associate Professor at BU in 2005. Dr. Schwadron’s previous experience includes positions as a Senior Research Scientist (2002-3), a Principal Scientist (2003-4) and a Staff Scientist (2005) at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX, an Assistant Research Scientist (1998-2002) at the University of Michigan, a Senior Research Scientist (1999) at the International Space Sceince Institute in Bern, Switzerland, and a Post-Doctoral Scholar at the University of Michigan’s Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science Department (1996-8). Professor Schwadron received a B. A. with honors in Physics from Oberlin College (1990) and a PhD (1996) in Physics from th`e University of Michigan.

Over the span of more than a decade, Professor Schwadron has provided a broad range of innovative theoretical discoveries, interpretations, and models of heliospheric phenomena related to the solar wind, the heliospheric magnetic field, pickup ions, cometary X-rays, energetic particles, and cosmic rays. Several recent discoveries include: the Solar Wind Scaling Law that provides a natural explanation for slow solar wind from hotter, more radiative sources; the Outer Source of pickup ions and Anomalous Cosmic Rays from Kuiper-Belt grains sputtered by the solar wind; the acceleration of Anomalous Cosmic Rays from the Blunt Termination Shock; a theory for the compositional enhancements observed in slow solar wind based on the heating of large-loops in the corona; and an important source of variability in cometary X-rays that enables their use to remotely probe solar wind composition. Prof. Schwadron is a team member of the Ulysses Mission, the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) Mission, the New Horizons Mission and participates in interpretation and analysis of these data as well as observations from Wind and the Cassini mission to Saturn. Dr. Schwadron is a co-Investigator on the Interstellar Boundary Explorer Mission, and is currently a lead organizer for the New England Space Science Consortium.