IMPACT - Key Persons
Adrienne Dove received her PhD in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciencees from the University of Colorado
Adrienne Dove is a fifth-year graduate student in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado (also affiliated with LASP and CCLDAS), working with Prof. Mihály Horányi. She has been involved in research in collaboration with Ball Aerospace to evaluate the effects of surface treatments on dust adhesion by using a centrifuge technique to measure adhesion forces in vacuum. She is currently investigating the generation of photoelectron sheaths in vacuum and the impact of UV illumination of the motion of lunar dust.
Akaxia Cruz is an undergraduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder and is double majoring in Physics and Mathematics.
Alan Stern received his PhD in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the associate vice-president of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Alex is a first year graduate student in the Department of Physics working with Mihály Horányi on the Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX) instrument aboard NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission.
Alexandra Okeson was an undergraduate student in Computer Science. She worked under Mihály Horányi developing software for the student dust counter.
Job Titles:
- Univ. of Colorado at Boulder
Alicia is a first-year graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Department of Physics, working with Prof. Shijie Zhong. She has quantified the correlation of deep moonquakes with mare basalts and is currently using numerical methods to study solid tides on the Moon to better understand the presence of heterogeneities deep in the lunar mantle.
Amy is a fourth year graduate student in planetary geosciences at the University of Notre Dame under the direction of Dr. Clive Neal. Her eclectic research includes impact craters and putative subglacial volcanoes near the north pole of Mars as well as lunar impact melts (Apollo 12, 14, and 16). She is currently working on distinguishing between pristine mare basalts and impact melts using both textural and geochemical analyses. Back to top
Andrew Poppe received his PhD in physics from the University of Colorado.
Andy was an undergraduate student working under Tobin Munsat developing the dust coordinate sensor used by the dust accelerator at DAL.
Angel Abbud-Madrid recieved his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Angel is the director for the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School on Mines.
Anthony received his PhD from the Applied Mathematics Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He currently works at the United States Naval Research Laboratory.
Anthony received his PhD in 2015 for impact cratering experiments. He accepted a job at Intel.
Ben Farr completed his undergraduate Physics degree in May 2020 and is continuing his work with Xu Wang on a project to develop and test new methods for mitigating dust on the Lunar surface.
Ben was a graduate student in the Applied Math Department working with Sascha Kempf and Mihály Horányi developing computational models of dust plumes.
Bill Goode is a graduate student working for Sascha Kempf on SUDA science development.
Brandon Cage is an undergraduate student in the Physics department working with Jan Deca on simulations of attractive regimes between dust grains in plasma.
Brandon is a senior undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering working with Zoltan Sternovsky and Mihály Horányi on designing an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber and supporting structure to be incorporated with a Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer and tested on the dust accelerator.
Calvin was an undergraduate student working under Xu Wang.
Catherine Neish is a first-year postdoc at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, working with Ben Bussey on Mini-RF data returned from the Chandrayaan-1 and LRO spacecraft. Her research interests focus on radar observations of planetary objects. Radar yields a wealth of information about the surface being imaged, including topography, composition, and roughness. In particular, the unusual radar properties of ice may lead to its detection in the permanently shadowed regions at the poles of the Moon, which has implications for future manned exploration of that body.
Chad worked with Sascha Kempf on SUDA testing and calibration.
Chris Anaya graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a degree in physics.
Christopher Dreyer received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Currently, he is a research scientist at the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines.
Chris graduated from CU with a bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering with minors in Quantitative Economics and General Applied Mathematics.
Connor participated in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at IMPACT. He worked with Mihály Horányi developing the spatial variability of detectors for the dust accelerator at DAL.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute
The Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres, and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT) is a member of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). With partners from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) departments of physics and aerospace engineering sciences, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the Colorado School of Mines, and an array of international collaborators, IMPACT studies the dusty plasma environments around airless bodies within the interplanetary medium.
Through a combination of modeling, theoretical and laboratory experiments, IMPACT researchers will answer a variety of science questions as well as provide insight necessary for ensuring human safety and long-term usability of mechanical and optical devices on airless bodies.
Formerly known as the Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies (CCLDAS), IMPACT is committed to a coherent and integrated plan for research, teaching, and community development. Experimental and theoretical efforts will explore the role that hypervelocity dust impacts have on shaping the surface and near-surface environments of airless bodies as well as techniques to mitigate hazardous dust interactions.
Dan Baker recieved his PhD from the University of Iowa and is currently the director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Dan Moriarty is a fourth-year graduate student at Brown University working with Carle Pieters. His researches focuses on near-infrared spectroscopy of the Moon and other airless bodies in order to understand processes such as large impacts and space weathering.
Daniel Scheeres received a PhD from the University of Michigan. He is a professor in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
David Brain recieved his PhD in Astrophysical, Planetary, and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
David Chaparro is a current graduate student at the CU Physics Department. He completed his BS in Physics at the University of Texas at Dallas. He now works with Tobin Munsat and Sascha Kempf continuing research on dust impacts on icy planets.
Eberhard Grün recieved his PhD from the University of Heidelberg. He is a research associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Emily graduated from Fairview High School, and entered CU Boulder as a high school intern.
Eric is an undergraduate student in Engineering Physics and Mechanical Engineering working with Tobin Munsat and Vladimir Gorokhovsky on developing methods of coating micron scale particles with thin metal layers for use in the dust accelerator.
Eric was an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering. He worked on fabiraction and design of test equipment for SUDA and GOLD. He now works at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Erik was an undergraduate student in Physics and Mechanical Engineering and worked with Sascha Kempf on designing and machining the SUDA prototype.
Ethan is a first year graduate student in Physics working with Mihály Horányi and Zoltan Sternovsky on designing and analyzing data from the Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX) instrument aboard NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission.
Ethan Que Williams was an undergraduate Physics major at CU. He worked under the guidance of Zoltan Sternovsky and Sascha Kempf simulating ion trajectories in SIMION in the effort to optimize the design of the Large Area Mass Analyzer (LAMA) dust telescope.
Evan received his PhD in Physics and worked under Tobin Munsat and Mihály Horányi designing the FPGA-based particle selection unit used on the accelerator. Additionally, Evan worked on a gas target experiment to investigate the ablation of micrometeoroids in the laboratory.
Evan is a graduate student at the University of Colorado where he studies meteor ablation. He runs laboratory experiments using a dust accelerator to measure the plasma and light production of dust ablating in atmospheric gases. He enjoys the mountains and the Colorado sunshine.
Student Evan Thomas plugging in one of the PMT detectors before a test run. Pictured above is a 3D cutaway render of the ablation chamber.
Forrest was an undergraduate student at the university of Colorado at Boulder working under Tobin Munsat on control and data visualization software for the accelerator.
Georg was a visiting graduate student from Stuttgart, Germany. Georg worked with Zoltan Sternovsky developing the PVDF electronics at DAL.
George Gilmer recieved his PhD in Physics from the University of Virginia. He is a research scientist at the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines.
Job Titles:
- Researcher at the LPI - JSC Center for Lunar Science
Georgiana Kramer is a postdoctoral researcher at the LPI-JSC Center for Lunar Science and Exploration. She studies the chemistry and mineralogy of the Moon, asteroids, and other planetary surfaces through integrated sample and remote sensing data analysis. Her research focuses on the chemical, physical and spectral effects of space weathering on planetary surfaces with little to no atmosphere or magnetic field. This research includes modeling the formation and retention of space dew. Dr. Kramer is on the Moon Mineralogy Mapper Science Team.
Giovanni Lapenta received a PhD in Plasma Physics from the Polytechnic University of Turin. He is a professor in the Mathematics Department at University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Greg received his PhD in Experimental Physics from Cornell University. He is a research scientist for the Center for Integrated Plasma Studies (CIPS), Boulder, Colorado.
Job Titles:
- International Space University
Heidi is a first year phd student in the Earth and Planetary Science department at UC Berkeley and works in the Space Sciences Lab with Imke de Pater and Greg Delory. Her research focuses on locating observations of induced electric and magnetic fields within the space plasma environment around the Moon to determine its interior structure using Electromagnetic Sounding.
Heidi is a recent graduate from the Masters of Space Studies program at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. She will begin a Ph.D. program this fall to pursue her research interests in Lunar Science. She has previously worked as an engineer for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, the Boeing Company, and NASA Ames Research Center working on the next lunar mission called LADEE.
Hsiang-Wen (Sean) Hsu received his PhD from the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg. He is a research associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Huy Le was an undergraduate in the Aerospace Engineering and Electrical Engineering departments.
Jack was a high school intern working with David James developing the Argon Plasma Undergraduate Laboratory.
Jamey received his PhD in 2015 for work with the LDEX mission studying the Moon's dust cloud. He accepted a Post Doc at SwRI, San Antonio.
Jamey is a second-year graduate student at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, working with Prof. Mihály Horányi. His research focuses on dusty space plasma physics throughout the solar system.
Jan received his PhD from the Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics (KULeuven), Belgium. Currently he is a research associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Jared was an undergrauate student developing theoretical support for the SUDA instrument.
Jessica is an incoming undergraduate at CU-Boulder studying computer engineering. She is currently working under Mihály Horányi on simulating magnetic field anomalies found on the Moon.
Jianfeng Xie graduated from CU with a PhD in physics. He used the Zemax to analyze the effect of ultraviolet light from the sun on detectors.
John is the dust accelerator lead engineer working on the large and small accelerators at DAL.
Jonas was a visiting graduate student from Stuttgart, Germany. Jonas worked with Zoltan Sternovsky on the gas target chamber at DAL.
Jordan graduated from Niwot High School, and will enter his first year at CU Boulder in the Engineering Physics Program.
Joseph completed his PhD in Physics working with Xu Wang and Mihály Horányi on upgrades to Langmuir Probes.
Joseph was an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering and worked under Xu Wang researching dust dynamics in plasmas.
João Hooks worked with Sascha Kempf on Cassini Time of Flight (TOF) mass spectroscopy for the Jovian and Saturnian systems. He worked on PDS data analysis and preparation.
JR was a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering and worked under Zoltan Sternovsky on the STEREO project.
Juliet was an undergraduate student and worked under Mihály Horányi developing computational models for IMPACT.
Jürgen Blum received his PhD from the University of Heidelberg. He is professor for physics at the University of Braunschweig in Germany.
Katherine Shirley is a fourth-year graduate student at Stony Brook University studying lunar spectroscopy with Timothy D. Glotch. Her focus is on the effects of the lunar environment on mid-infrared spectroscopy and the role that particle size and albedo variation due to space weathering play in altering spectral features.
Katherine is a third-year graduate student within the Geosciences Department at Stony Brook University working with Dr. Tim Glotch. Her research focuses on spectroscopy of airless bodies primarily on the Moon, but with applications to other bodies within the solar system.
Kerri is a fourth-year graduate student at Brown University working with Jack Mustard and Carle Pieters. Her research focuses on the integration of lunar remote sensing data sets including near IR M3 data and thermal IR Diviner data to gain a better understanding of lunar surface compositions as well as making laboratory emissivity measurements of minerals and rocks under simulated lunar conditions.
Leela was a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering and worked with Zoltan Sternovsky. Her focus was on the development of space instruments including the Nano Dust Analyzer, which is a linear time-of-flight mass spectrometer.
Li Hsia is a second year graduate student in the Department of Physics working with Xu Wang and Mihály Horányi on the Colorado Solar Wind Experiment (CSWE).
Liam completed his bachelor's degrees in Math, Physics, and Computer Science in May of 2020 and will be taking a job at Raytheon. He worked with Tobin Munsat on development of an improved FPGA for the accelerator's particle selection unit.
Luke Eberwein is an undergraduate in Physics working with Xu Wang on studying electrostatic dust charging and lofting on surfaces of airless planetary bodies.
Marcus completed his PhD in the Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences department working with Mihály Horányi on simulations of photoelectron sheaths and dust dynamics on the lunar surface. He now works at Mission Ops at LASP.
Marcus is a fourth-year graduate student in the Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He works with Mihály Horányi on data analysis from the Student Dust Counter aboard the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto.
Margaret Campbell-Brown recieved her PhD in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Western Ontario. She is an associate professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Western Ontario.
Marina Gemma is a third-year graduate student at Columbia University who does her research in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History. She studies meteorites with Denton S. Ebel, focusing on the spectral characteristics and trace element chemistry of ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites.
Mark graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with an aerospace engineering degree.
Max studies Industrial Engineering in Berlin and came to Boulder to do an internship for five months.
Michael worked with Zoltan Sternovsky and completed his PhD on meteoric ablation in April of 2020. He is currently at Princeton University.
Michael was an undergrauate studying Physics and Applied Mathematics. He worked on simulations dealing with lunar swirl morphology and is now an Engineering Physics grad student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Michael was an undergraduate student in Engineering Physics and worked on the Dust Particle Accelerator.
Michelle worked with Sascha Kempf and David James developing a program to analyze mass spectroscopy data without human manipulation for Cassini.
Mihály Horányi received his PhD in Space Physics from the Lorand Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary. He is professor of physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder and was the PI of IMPACT from 2008-2022.
Nicholaus Beaty worked under Mihály Horányi with Anthony Shu trying to optimize and improve the efficiency of the accelerator. He also helped to characterize the different types of dust that can be used.
Nick was an interning high school student and entered CU-Boulder as a Physics major.
Nicole Duncan received her B.A. in Engineering Physics from the University of Colorado and worked on the Dust Trajectory Sensor (DTS) project.
Oak Nelson was an undergraduate student in Engineering Physics and worked under Tobin Munsat on initial experiments in the ice chamber. .
Paige Northway graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in Engineering Physics and a minor in German.
Patrick is a fourth-year graduate student at the University of Notre Dame, working with Prof. Clive Neal. His research focuses on the origin and evolution of high-titanium lunar basalts, particularly through application of crystal stratigraphy techniques to the Apollo 17 high-titanium basalt suite. This sample-based research is leading to a more thorough understanding of lunar volcanic processes.
Richard Dee received his PhD in Low Temperature Solid State Physics from the University of Lancaster, England. Currently he is an Affiliate to the Department of Physics and CIPS assisting in the design of cryogenic targets for the dust accelerator.
Robert was an undergraduate student at the University of Colorado working under Xu Wang.
Sascha Kempf is the deputy PI of the Cassini dust detector CDA and develops instrumentation for compositional analysis of comsic dust. He is also an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Scott received his PhD in Applied Physics from Cornell University. He was a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Sean was an interning high school student from Fairview High School in Boulder. He aspires to pursue a career in astrophysics or renewable energies.
Shannon graduated from CU with a degree in engineering physics and a minor in astronomy.
Spencer LeBlanc worked as an undergraduate with IMPACT.
Spenser Burrows graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a degree Engineering Physics and chemistry.
Stein Sture received a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate school at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Steven Priddy was pursing a master's degree in aerospace engineering with an emphasis on bioastronautics. He was working with Zoltan Sternovsky on new experimental setups.
Thomas Corbett is a first year undergraduate student in the Physics department. He is working with John Fontanese on the database project and nanocharacterization of the dust used in the lab.
Thomas Watts was a Physics major at CU Boulder who worked under Xu Wang. He is the author of the honors thesis "Simulation of Cold Cathode Discharge Tube Glow Profiles: An MCC Approach".
Tyler worked with IMPACT as a Junior pursuing a degree in Engineering Physics.
Xu Wang received his PhD in Engineering Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Xu is a research scientist for the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).
Zach is a graduate student in physics working with Tobin Munsat and Mihály Horányi on dust impacts into ice surfaces.