I started my work in space plasma physics at Saint John's University [Collegeville, MN] while working on my senior thesis [Advisor: J. Crumley]. My thesis, titled: A Theoretical Approach to Analyzing the Size and Shape of Solitary Waves, examined the possible shapes of electrostatic BGK electron phase-space holes assuming a Gaussian potential. I was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Minnesota and participated in a summer research fellowship prior to the start of term continuing my work on solitary waves. I worked for C.A. Cattell, J. Crumley's former doctoral advisor.
I started to officially work for Dr. Cattell after my first year of course work on waveform observations in and around collisionless shock waves. I was appointed an RA for my second year as a graduate student and won the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, which funded my work from Sep. 2007 through May 2010. I applied for both the NASA Postdoctoral Program and the Living With a Star Heliophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in early 2010. I was awarded a fellowship for the later, but was later offered a permanent position as a civil servant at NASA, which I accepted. I won the Dr. Leonard F. Burlaga/Arctowski Medal Fellowship in the summer of 2010 to fund the rest of my graduate career.
I defended my dissertation, titled: The microphysics of collisionless shocks, in Sep. 2010. Three days later, my fiance and I drove to Maryland from MInnesota to start my new career at NASA.
I continue to work on wave-particle microphysics and have helped with updating the calibration [in collaboration with Berkeley SSL] of an electrostatic analyzer on the Wind spacecraft.