Name: Christine Gabrielse Institution (Location): University of California, Los Angeles Degree(s): Ph.D., Geophysics & Space Physics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA B.S., Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL Current and past missions/projects: NASA THEMIS Mission, SuperDARN Radar, GO-Canada (imagers, riometers) Research Interests: How energy is transferred within the magnetosphere and from the magnetosphere to Earth's upper atmosphere (the ionosphere)
High school was similar...I hated memorizing terminology for biology and chemistry, but when I started physics class I couldn't get enough. I was just so amazed that math went beyond equations that you work out on paper (which I thought was boring!), and could actually be used to elegantly describe exactly how things move and interact with each other in time and space. My brain just exploded when I learned that we could figure out how far away a star is using "parallax", the same way our two eyes help us to judge distance! Although I had other interests and hobbies, my "guiding star" (pun intended) when it came to choosing a career path was this deep, innate feeling that I wanted to dedicate my life to something that would really push humanity forward to new and better places. It is probably the same sense that motivates any explorer and frontiersman, and I felt that outer space really was the "final frontier" left to explore. So, I packed my bags for the Floridian space coast and began my trajectory towards space physicist. While studying for my bachelor's degree, I had the amazing opportunity to do undergrad research with a space physics professor who introduced me to space weather. Because I had a year's experience under my belt studying the very space weather phenomenon that the THEMIS mission was designed to observe, it was the perfect match to move out to UCLA for my Ph.D. The rest, I guess, is history!
Other than that, my day-to-day involves research meetings and seminars, paper writing, conference organizing, and in the past student advising. The meetings are for scientists in my research group to share their progress and get feedback on their ideas and methodology. Seminars are more formal presentations that usually include results. It's a good way to get you out of your little bubble and thinking about different areas of research.
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AuthorA bunch of us Space Nerds Archives
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