David J. McComas
David John McComas | |
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Born | May 22, 1958 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. | (age 63)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S.) University of California, Los Angeles (M.S., Ph.D.) |
Occupation | physicist, executive |
Known for | space scientist and Principal Investigator of multiple space missions |
David John McComas (born May 22, 1958) is an American space plasma physicist, Vice President for Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. He had been Assistant Vice President for Space Science and Engineering at the Southwest Research Institute, Adjoint Professor[1] of Physics at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and was the founding director of the Center for Space Science and Exploration[2] at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is noted for his extensive accomplishments in experimental space plasma physics, including leading instruments and missions to study the heliosphere and solar wind: IMAP, IBEX, TWINS, Ulysses/, ACE/SWEPAM, and Parker Solar Probe. He received the 2014 COSPAR Space Science Award and the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal.
Biography[]
McComas was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Geophysics and from University of California, Los Angeles in 1985 and 1986. He began his space physics career in 1980 with early development work on the SWOOPS instrument for Ulysses, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He moved to SwRI, in San Antonio, Texas, in 2000 and Princeton University in 2016.
McComas holds seven patents[3] and is author of over 700 scientific and technical papers in the refereed literature, spanning topics in heliospheric, magnetospheric, solar, and planetary science as well as space instrumentation and mission development. Together these have garnered over 38,000 citations.[4]
Space missions[]
McComas is Principal Investigator of NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) and TWINS (Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers) missions, as well as the Parker Solar Probe – Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun[5] instrument suite (ISOIS), and the Ulysses Solar Wind Plasma Investigation (SWOOPS) instrument. He is lead co-investigator for the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) Solar Wind Electron, Proton, Alpha Monitor[6] (SWEPAM), and Solar Wind Around Pluto[7] (SWAP) instrument on New Horizons.
McComas is also co-investigator on the JUNO mission and led the design and development of the Jovian Auroral Distribution Experiment (JADE) Instrument and is co-investigator on the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS), Cassini-Huygens Plasma Spectrometer[8] (CAPS), GENESIS[9] discovery mission, POLAR Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment (TIDE),[10] and IMAGE Midsized Explorer. At Los Alamos he was also Principal Investigator for a series of Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzers[11] (MPAs) in geosynchronous orbit.
Boards and advisory committees[]
McComas serves on the (SSB) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) Science Associates Board of Directors. He was previously a member of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC 2013 - 2015) and served and then chaired the NAC Science Committee (2010 - 2015).[12] He chaired NASA's Solar Probe Science and Technology Definition Team[13] (2003 -2008), NASA's Sun-Earth Connections Advisory Subcommittee (SECAS) 2000–2003, and J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee[14] (1997-1999).
McComas also previously served on the advisory committee for the Scobee Education Center at San Antonio College and on the board of directors of the Dyslexic Advantage,[15] a 501c3, and is, himself, dyslexic.
Awards and honors[]
- Recipient of the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal (2015)
- Recipient of the 2014 COSPAR Space Science Award[16]
- Recipient of the 2012 Adler Planetarium Outstanding Science Education Partner of the Year Award
- Fellow (2010) American Physical Society
- Fellow (2007) American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Recipient of the 1993 American Geophysical Union James B. Macelwane Medal
- Fellow (1993) American Geophysical Union
- Recipient of 19 NASA Group Achievement Awards
- Asteroid 172090 Davidmccomas, named after him in 2018
References[]
- ^ University of Texas Faculty Appointments and Titles
- ^ Los Alamos National Laboratory Center for Space Science and Exploration
- ^ Patents Observer; David J. McComas
- ^ Google Scholar; David J. McComas
- ^ "NASA Solar Probe Plus Instruments". Archived from the original on 2014-11-21. Retrieved 2014-09-16.
- ^ Advanced Composition Explorer; Solar Wind Electron, Proton, and Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM)
- ^ NASA; New Horizons; Solar Wind Around Pluto Instrument
- ^ NASA; CASSINI; Plasma Spectrometer
- ^ NASA GENESIS
- ^ NASA; POLAR; Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment
- ^ Los Alamos Magnetopheric Plasma Analyzers
- ^ NASA Advisory Council Science Committee
- ^ NASA Solar Probe Science and Technology Definition Team
- ^ "J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee". Archived from the original on 2014-12-06. Retrieved 2014-09-16.
- ^ [1]
- ^ COSPAR Space Science Award
- 1958 births
- Living people
- Scientists from Milwaukee
- MIT Department of Physics alumni
- University of California, Los Angeles alumni
- UCLA Department of Earth Planetary and Space Sciences alumni
- 21st-century American physicists