Ilia Roussev

Ilia Roussev obtained his Master's Degree in Physics and Astronomy from the Physics Department of Sofia University, Bulgaria, in the summer of 1995. In 1997, he received a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Scholarship to pursue further research studies on accretion disks and jets at the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, Germany. In 1999, he enrolled in the Ph.D. program of the School of Mathematics and Physics at the Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, based at the Armagh Observatory. His studies were focused on understanding the nature of small-scale transient events on the “quiet” Sun, in particular Explosive Events. In the fall of 2000, he received a one-year Newkirk Research Fellowship to work on his thesis project at the High Altitude Observatory. In October of 2001, he completed his Ph.D. studies in Solar Physics. In the fall of 2001, he joined as a Research Fellow the Center for Space Environment Modeling at the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences (AOSS) at the University of Michigan. He has been involved in analytical and computational studies of the solar atmosphere, concentrating on processes that couple the photosphere with the overlying corona and solar wind during quiet and magnetically active times on the Sun. His scientific contributions led to his promotion to an Assistant Research Scientist in the spring of 2003. In February of 2006, he began a tenure-track faculty appointment at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) in Hawaii. He presently holds this position.

He has authored or co-authored over 20 publications in refereed journals and over 35 conference presentations and seminars. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Committee on Space Research, and the American Astronomical Society and the Solar Physics Division. He is a working group leader of the Solar Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE) Program within the National Science Foundation (NSF), and he is a Principal Investigator on a three-year NSF-SHINE project. He is also a Principal Investigator on a five-year NSF-CAREER project entitled "CAREER: Bridging Modern Computational Capabilities and Observations of Solar Magnetic Fields with Expanding Solar Physics Education at the University of Hawai'i". He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the BG-URSI School and Workshop on Waves and Turbulence Phenomena in Space Plasmas in Kiten, Bulgaria, during July 1-9, 2006. He was one of the main organizers and convener of the International Symposium on Recent Observations and Simulations of the Sun-Earth System (ISROSES), which was held in Varna, Bulgaria, during September 17-22, 2006. He is a main organizer of the AAS' Solar Physics Division (SPD) Summer School on Observations and Models of the Solar Corona, during June 1-8, 2007, on Maui. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) Schools in 2007.

Visit Ilia's IFA personal website here: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/users/iroussev/

NOE LUGAZ

I was born in France, where I spent the first 22 years of my life. I received my undergraduate education in Lyon (lycée du Parc) and Toulouse (ENSAE- Supaéro) in aerospace engineering and earned my diplôme d'ingénieur (M.Eng) in Dec. 2003.

I came to University of Michigan for a M. Sc. as an exchange student to complete the last of my five years of French undergraduate and decided to stay. I received my MSc. in Atmospheric and Space Science (great acronym) in Dec 2003 from the department of Atmospheric, Ocean and Space Sciences (AOSS) at UM.

From Oct. 2002 to August 2003, I worked with Hunter Waite on X-Ray imaging of Jupiter's aurora with Chandra. We ruled out bremsstrahlung as their sources and found that Sulfur and Oxygen from Io (subsequentally energetized In the Jovian magnetosphere) were the most likely source of energetic ions causing these X-rays.

From August 2003 to November 2006, I worked with Tamas Gombosi and Ward (Chip) Manchester for my PhD. in Solar and Heliospheric Physics creating the first synthetic coronagraph images of Coronal Mass Ejection, which allowed us to determine the level of error associated with the derivation of mass and energy from real coronagraph images. Then i began studying interacting Coronal Mass Ejections. We studied how a preceding CME gets compressed by the shock associated with an overtaking CME, leading to shorter duration, but possible stronger space weather effect (stronger southward Bz and denser sheath). We studied how shocks merging may result in a denser/hotter sheath at 1 AU. We published one of the first
simulations of a real series of events (3 CMEs from Nov. 2000) in 3-D from 1 solar radius to 1AU. We also produced some synthetic STEREO/Heliospheric Imager images and predicted that STEREO will be good to see interacting CMEs.

I defended (Nov. 2006) for my Ph.D. just after STEREO launch so that no one could realize whether I am right or wrong. I officially received my diploma in April 2007.

I came to IfA/UH as a postdoc in January 2007 to join Ilia Roussev, whom I knew from Michigan. Ilia came up with a new way to initiate CMEs, taking into account the complexity of the coronal magnetic field, which we then applied to the August 24, 2002 CME event. I continued to study STEREO/HI by simulating the first major CMEs detected by the instruments (Jan 24-25, 2007).

By Fall 2008, I will be supported by NASA/Living With a Star Program to study the solar origin of strong Bz at 1AU (focusing on interacting CMEs) with the hope that EUV images developed here (by Cooper Downs) will help us see if there are warning signs for possible forecast and by NSF/ National Space Weather Program to expand this study to also focus on shock formation and merging and density modification in the corona in-
between CMEs.

In real life, I juggle (mostly for fun plus some volunteering at museum/special olympics/school fair...), do some acrobatics, carry babies for some friends (is it just me, or there is a huge baby boom on Oahu?) and do the usual reading/movie/music listening/cooking/swimming. When I was still a PhD candidate, I also filled my time by studying Babylonian for 4 semesters and enjoyed the fact that dance companies and world music groups would come to Michigan more often than to Hawaii.

Personal Website: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/users/nlugaz/website/Noe.html

Carla Jacobs

In 1998, Carla Jacobs started to study mathematics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, after spending 18 years of her life on the beautiful Belgian countryside. Four years later, she graduated with a major in astronomy and mathematical physics. In her master's thesis, she investigated the tidal effects on the planet Mercury. After obtaining the university degree, she followed the Research Master programme at the von Karman Institute for fluid dynamics in Sint-Genesius-Rode (near Brussels). Under the supervision of Prof. Herman Deconinck, she obtained the diploma in 2003. At the von Karman Institute she came into contact with the field of computational fluid dynamics, and she continued in this research when starting the doctoral programme at the Centre for Plasma-Astrophysics in Leuven. The next four years, she worked on numerical simulations of the initiation and evolution of Coronal Mass Ejections, and this under the supervision of Prof. Stefaan Poedts. By the end of 2007, she finished her PhD and became a postdoc at the K.U.Leuven. In the first year of her postdoc, she spent six months in the Institute for Astronomy at Hawaii, working for Ilia Roussev. At the C2H2, she worked on the initiation of CMEs and investigated the internal magnetic structure of CMEs. By the end of 2008, she changed the blue skies of Hawaii again for rainy Belgium, continuing working at the CPA.

Cooper Downs

Current Work: Connecting and Constraining Data-Driven Solar Atmosphere Models Through Observations: Studying EUV Emission in Realistic Flare-CME Events.

I am currently beginning my third year graduate student at the IFA and am in the process of starting my thesis project under Dr. Ilia Roussev. I originally hail from the San Francisco Bay Area and received my undergraduate degree, B.S. Physics (Astrophysics) with a Mathematics Minor from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2006.

I began graduate school in the Fall of 2006 and, as part of the curriculum, have conducted two nine month research projects related to the study of the sun. The first was with Dr. Jeff Kuhn on understanding the role of molecular hydrogen in the dynamics of sunspot penumbra, and developing a simple model to describe osmotic flow. This project piqued my interest in both solar astrophysics and numerical tools for understanding complex phenomena in the solar atmosphere.  The informal paper and presentation can be found here: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~cdowns/files/cdowns_Hdyn.pdf

My second project, and my current interest, extends my regime of interest higher up in the Solar Atmosphere into the Corona. Working under Dr. Ilia Roussev, I used a global simulation tool continue the study the Aug 24 2002 CME event with the focus on comparing to EUV observations during the time of the event. This marked my first crack at learning how full 3D MHD simulations work and understanding their usefulness in studying the complex conditions of the solar atmosphere. With simulations carried out here on C2H2's computing cluster, we implemented a method to synthesize EUV emission in the SWMF model. With analysis of these and of observations made by the SOHO observatory, we presented an effort to further refine the model. This work was presented via poster (link this?) at the 2008 SHINE conference.

This fall I will also begin my recent three year fellowship award from the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship Program (NESSF) in Heliophysics. Entitled 'Connecting and Constraining Data-Driven Solar Atmosphere Models Through Observations: Studying EUV Emission in Realistic Flare-CME Environments', this project aims to greatly improve our description of the low corona within the context of a global simulation tool and use this to study globally propagating waves in the corona. This will extend on my previous work with Ilia Roussev and form the core of my thesis project here at the IFA. Stay tuned!

Ever since my first introductory course on gravitation at UCSC I have been highly interested in studying Astrophysics. The palpable excitement I felt when was first learning how to apply simple physics to understand objects on far beyond the size and scope of earth still motivates me today. When it comes to research, I find the study of the Sun and related phenomena to be particularly appealing, both because it represents a complex domain that combines a large number of scientific fields and, because of our proximity, it allows for a unique set of unprecedentedly detailed  observations that continue to pose new challenges for our  understanding and the study of Astrophysics as a whole.

Lastly, in my personal life, I enjoy a fair amount of not-so-serious recreation, including in no particular order: playing electric bass, skateboarding, video gaming (I can't stop playing Tetris!), and enjoying the wonderful Hawaii weather. As far as reading, I have currently developed an appetite for science-fiction short stories (some authors are incredibly gifted at combining art and science) and the classic horror of H.P. Lovecraft.

Visit Cooper Downs' personal IFA website here: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~cdowns/Site/Cooper%20Downs.html

Nada Al-Haddad

Nada Al-Haddad is currently a first year grad student at the IFA Manoa Institute for Astronomy. She received her B.S. in Physics from the University of Sanaa in Yemen. While there, she studied laser cooling and trapping, completing her graduate project in that subject.

Beyond her studies, Nada took on the role of program manager for World Year of Physics 2005, an international celebration of physics and its importance in everyday lives. Nada felt that she wanted to inspire the other students in her class to get inspired and to have a variety of experiences despite the fact that neither the University nor the government provided any support for these extracurricular activities. “There is very little support for science in Yemen,” she explains, “and I wanted the students to have more resources available to them.” One of the resources that Nada acquired for her class was NASA’s educational kit radio telescope, Radio JOVE, used to observe and understand radio emissions from Jupiter.

In 2006, because of her success with World Year of Physics 2005, the physics department head appointed Nada the national coordinator for the International Heliophysical Year 2007. IHY 2007 is an organization that fosters scientific collaboration between researchers on an international scale to advance the understanding of the heliophysical processes that govern the Sun, Earth, and heliosphere. In July 2007, Nada traveled to UC Boulder for an IHY conference where she met C2H2 head Ilia Roussev.

Nada graduated from University of Sanaa in 2006, however continued her involvement with the physics department with the IHY 2007. She also taught English and Math and worked as an interpreter upon graduation. After meeting Ilia Roussev, she applied to UH Manoa and was accepted as a graduate student at the Institute for Astronomy. Nada arrived in October of 2007 and currently works toward her PhD. at C2H2. She is currently research magnetic flux and coronal outflow under the guidance of Shaddia Habal.

Elena Moise

Bio coming soon.

Katie Whitman

Katie Whitman is the webmaster for this website and is in charge of public outreach for C2H2.

From a young age, Katie knew that she wanted to do astronomy, though she's not sure why. Maybe it's because the parents of the main character in her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time, were astrophysists or maybe it's because her own parents sent her to Space Camp in fourth grade. Whatever the cause, Katie completed a B.S. from Cornell University in 2000. During her time at Cornell, she did summer research at Colgate University observing the quasar BL Lacertae and an REU at the Harvard-Smithsonian CFA exploring the relationship between the X-ray luminosity of galaxy clusters versus the visual luminosity of their component galaxies.

After college, Katie spent a year living in Nevis, a small Caribbean island, with her mother working on a fishing boat and a catamaran booze cruise. She returned to her home in Connecticut to work at Yale University as a research assistant while also pretending to be a grad student. Katie became a grad student in real life in 2002 when she joined the UH Institute for Astronomy.

At the IFA, Katie studied under Jeff Kuhn working in both science and instrumentation. A brand new spectrograph, the High Resolution Visible and Infrared Spectrograph (HiVIS), had just been commissioned and Katie became the primary observer on the instrument. She also began developing a data reduction pipeline and completed a research project on highly variable young high mass stars.

Katie received her M.S. in 2004, but opted out of the Ph.D. program. She continued to work with Jeff Kuhn until 2007, becoming the manager for HiVIS. She attempted to address all computational, electrical, and mechanical issues the instrument might have while also filling the role of the instrument's primary observer.

In the meantime, Katie began publishing a small music magazine about Hawaii's local music scene and began regularly promoting concerts. She further developed her writing, photography, video, and business management skills through this publication which now has a monthly print run of 2500 copies and a volunteer staff of 15 people. (www.The808SceneZine.com) She also recently became a drummer in a band called A Sedated Nation (see picture).

After working with HiVIS for five years, Katie felt that she needed a job change. She spent a nine month stint digging holes as an archaeological technician until she came across the lucky discovery that C2H2 was in need of assistance in public outreach. Katie very much enjoys her new position which allows her to use both her scientific and media oriented backgrounds.