Dr. Ian Mann – Team Lead
Prof. Ian R. Mann (PI) is a professor and former Canada Research Chair in Space Physics (2003-13) in the Department of Physics at the UofA with over 200 refereed publications. He is an expert in the experimental and theoretical analysis of ULF waves, and their impact on energetic particles in the magnetosphere. He is the PI of the CARISMA ground-based magnetometer array, PI of the RADICALS mission and a Co-I on the NASA THEMIS and Van Allen Probes missions. He served as a member of the COSPAR/ILWS Space Weather Roadmap Team and was the United Nations International Chairman of the Expert Group on Space Weather (2015-2022). In fall 2020, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Dr. Robert Fedosejevs – HEPT Instrument Lead
Prof. Robert Fedosejevs (Co-I) has more than 40 years of research experience and has led many projects as the PI of 3 industrially related NSERC Strategic grants, as Chair holder of an NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair in Laser Applications for ten years and as PI of the CSA funded projects for the development of the HEPT instrument for 6 years. For 10 years, he was the Scientific Director for the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations, one of the Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence with an operating budget of $4.5M per year. His expertise is in the areas of lasers, spectroscopy, plasmas, x-rays, high energy laser particle acceleration and MeV particle detection. He has been involved in measurements of energetic electrons and ions from laser plasma sources for 35 years and in the development of high-energy particle detectors in collaboration with industrial partners for space applications for six years during the HEPT project and for several additional years in the Super-SWEPT, SWEPT-2, LL-SWEPT and P-SWEPT studies. He has published over 240 peer reviewed scientific and technical articles and contributed to over 370 scientific presentations.
Dr. David Milling – Magnetometer Instrument Lead
Dr. David Milling (Co-I) is a Faculty Service Officer and Senior Magnetometry Program Manager in the Department of Physics at the U. Alberta. He has over 35 years’ experience of building and managing arrays of ground-based magnetometers in Europe (SAMNET) and North America (CARSIMA). He was the PI of the GO Canada CARMIC/NGEN program which developed the DFGM digital electronics and was Principal Investigator on 2 CSA FAST missions involving all phases of magnetometer development to flight on balloon (CABERET) and sounding rocket (MIMIR). He is the Instrument lead for the Search Coil and Fluxgate Magnetometers on the RADICALS satellite mission.
Dr. Chris Cully – XRI Instrument Lead
Dr. Chris Cully (Co-I) is a Canada Research Chair in Space Physics, focused on research involving the use of satellite and ground-based systems to explore and understand the space environment, the radiation belts, and their loss into the atmosphere. As principal investigator for high-altitude flight projects and major ground-based research projects, Cully leads the University of Calgary in delivering on its New Earth Space Technologies (NEST) strategic research priority. In 2017, he launched EPEx, a Canadian Space Agency-sponsored stratospheric balloon mission. Cully is currently involved in several NASA mission proposals, including proposals to provide flight hardware. Cully is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, and the principal investigator for ABOVE (the Array for Broadband Observations of VLF/ELF Emissions).
Dr. Martin Connors – Science Analysis
Martin Connors is Professor of Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics at Athabasca University and holds an adjunct appointment at Western (UWO). He established the former AUTUMN/AUTUMNX magnetic networks and the Athabasca University Observatories. Magnetic data is mainly analyzed with US colleagues while imaging data from Athabasca is mainly analyzed with colleagues from Japan, where he was a Visiting Foreign Professor at Nagoya University. His space weather work is now mainly related to magnetotellurics. His work in planetary science has resulted in several articles in “Nature” and his new book “Invisible Solar System” reflects work in all the above fields.
Dr. Robyn Fiori – Space Weather Lead
Dr. Robyn Fiori (Co-I) is a research scientist for the Canadian Hazards Information Service of Natural Resources Canada specializing in space weather. Her research is applied to the development and improvement of space weather tools and forecasts to be used by operators of critical infrastructures and technologies in Canada. Robyn focuses on the effects of space weather on the ionosphere and is an expert in the use of spherical cap harmonic analysis modelling techniques.
Dr. Kathryn McWilliams – Science Analysis and Training
Dr. Kathryn McWilliams is the director of the SuperDARN Canada (Super Dual Auroral Radar Network), a ten-nation collaboration who synchronize the operation of their space weather radars in the north and the south to produce space weather maps of the Earth’s ionosphere. Dr. McWilliams’ main research interest is the Earth’s magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Her research relies on assimilative data combination to study the electromagnetic picture of electric fields, magnetic fields, and electrically charged particles in the Earth’s space environment and upper atmosphere. Dr. McWilliams is heavily involved in research-based educational program development. She is an original member of CaNoRock (the Canada-Norway Student Sounding Rocket Program) team, and leads the International Space Mission Training Program, an NSERC-CREATE funded training opportunity for M.Sc. students from Norway and Canada.
Dr. Robert Rankin – Simulation and Modelling Lead
Dr. Robert Rankin (Co-I) is a professor of physics at the University of Alberta whose research is focused on determining the role played by plasma waves in transferring electromagnetic energy and particles from the solar wind to Earth’s magnetosphere and polar ionosphere. This includes the study of ULF waves in complex magnetic topologies, and wave-particle interactions affecting energetic particle populations in auroral plasma and in the Van-Allen radiation belts. Dr. Rankin’s work includes the development of theory and advanced computer models that are used to interpret observations from satellites, rockets, and arrays of ground-based instrumentation, including NASA THEMIS, FAST, and POLAR satellites.
Dr. William Ward – Atmospheric Science Lead
Dr. William Ward is a Professor in the Physics Department at the University of New Brunswick. He is an expert in the observation and modelling of the dynamics of the middle/upper atmosphere. Dr. Ward has also been involved for nearly 30 years in the extended Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (eCMAM) and the Canadian Ionosphere and Atmosphere Model (CIAM) whole atmosphere general circulation models. He is PI of the Dynamics of the Neutral Thermosphere project, in Eureka, Nunavut. He is the Canadian national representative for SCOSTEP (Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics) and co-lead on its international ROSMIC project. Dr. Ward’s current work involves determining how best to combine modelling capabilities with sophisticated observations to provide comprehensive data sets, to improve our understanding of the phenomena involved and to develop a predictive capability based on appropriately combining observations and models.
Dr. Robert Zee – Spacecraft Lead
Dr. Robert Zee is the Director of the Space Flight Laboratory at UTIAS and helped to establish the lab in 1998 in response to the opportunity to provide major contributions to the MOST microsatellite, Canada’s first space telescope. He was responsible for setting up numerous programs at SFL and securing funding to develop new missions and new technologies that have enabled SFL to deliver some of the highest return-on-investment space missions in the world. His responsibilities include strategic planning, business development, operations oversight, development practice, quality assurance policies, customer service, supervision, contract negotiation and management, finance and administration. In addition, he provides technical review, systems engineering input, and program guidance to the SFL staff. Dr. Zee also supervises graduate students with thesis topics related to microspace missions and technology under development at SFL. Dr. Zee has worked for Allied Signal Aerospace Company, Spar Aerospace Ltd., and IBM Canada Ltd. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Systems Design Engineering with a minor in Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo, and Master of Applied Science and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto.