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A short professional bioFollowing graduation from Augsburg College in Minneapolis MN Alexa Halford went on to receive a Masters in Astronomy and Planetary Sciences from University of Colorado at Boulder and a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Newcastle Australia. Shortly after completing her Ph.D. work, Halford won a highly competitive “Visiting Young Scientist” fellowship from Dartmouth College. Since then she has served as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Physics at Dartmouth, and is a member of the scientific team for a NASA-funded scientific balloon experiment project called BARREL (Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses). She then moved to the Aerospace Corporation and is now a space physics researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
A short and fun bioAlexa Halford is a prime example of what happens when you go to college in MN and take up space. She became a space physicist, and because she got her PhD in Oz, some times says x, y, zed instead of x, y, zee. When not having way too animated discussions about plasma waves, you can find her at the local bookstore coffee shop or in the garden.
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A short and more personalized bioAs a child I saw a butterfly in the North Woods of Wisconsin and I tried to stand very still. Every one knew that butterflies had symmetric markings on their two wings. What I saw instead was that when it flapped it's wings, it had four instead of two. That sense of discovery is what drove me into the sciences. In my first year at College my Prof. gave me a bunch of data and told me to find something interesting. When I showed him my results his response was "oh that's the Aurora, we already know about that". I may have been 50 years late for the credit of discovering the aurora, but I was hooked. Since then I graduated with a BA and Honors in Math and Physics from Augsburg College in MN and received a Masters degree in Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder and a PhD from the University of Newcastle Australia. I then went to Dartmouth College for a post doc working on the Balloon Array for Relativistic Radiation Belt Electron Loss (BARREL) mission and now am a Scientist at NASA Goddard. Throughout my education I have been lucky to work at JPL NASA looking at Uranus's moons and study Saturn on the Cassini mission at the South West Research Institute. Today I stick a bit closer to home studying the Earth's magnetic field and its space weather phenomena.
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A longer and more personalized bio
One day when I was three or four, wondering through the back woods of Wisconsin, I saw a butterfly sitting on a branch. I crept up trying not to disturb it. Everyone knows that butterflies have beautiful patterns on their two wings and I wanted to see the designs. Eventually, the butterfly moved showing four distinct wings. It took all my energy to stay still to confirm my observation. Once it moved a second time I jumped up, and ran back to my mom to tell her of my discovery. She thought I must be mistaken as butterflies have two wings. Later that week a NOVA special aired on butterflies confirming my observations; butterflies have four wings. I vividly remember that thrilling feeling of excitement and discovery. I was going to chase this high for the rest of my life.
In undergrad at Augsburg, I was very fortunate to start research my first year in the space physics lab. I was given spectrograms and told to find something interesting. I had hundreds of plots to go through and I kept seeing enhancements in both hemispheres of the globe, always in the morning hours. I was so excited to show my advisor thinking that I had really found something new and interesting. He looked at it and said, 'Ya, that's the Aurora, we already know about that, what else do you have'... I had discovered the Aurora, sure maybe 100 years late to get credit for it. But I had that giddy feeling again of discovery. I quickly realized that space physics was it for me. I had found my vocation, my calling.
One of the ultimate goals of our field is to be able to predict geomagnetic storms and space weather as one predicts terrestrial weather. However, we’ve only been in space for about 60 years and we're still trying to figure out what it's like up there. That's where my research comes in. I study the loss of electrons from the Earth’s radiation belts. These electrons that we study are known culprits for causing problems our technology. We still have a lot to learn, not just about the physics of what occurs up in space, not just about the different types of events in the Sun-Earth system, but also about what types of space weather events affect technology and life. As of today we are able to look at (and are getting better at nowcasting, and a bit of forecasting) largish scale events analogous to pressure systems, but even one random strike of lighting can have a great affect.
In undergrad at Augsburg, I was very fortunate to start research my first year in the space physics lab. I was given spectrograms and told to find something interesting. I had hundreds of plots to go through and I kept seeing enhancements in both hemispheres of the globe, always in the morning hours. I was so excited to show my advisor thinking that I had really found something new and interesting. He looked at it and said, 'Ya, that's the Aurora, we already know about that, what else do you have'... I had discovered the Aurora, sure maybe 100 years late to get credit for it. But I had that giddy feeling again of discovery. I quickly realized that space physics was it for me. I had found my vocation, my calling.
One of the ultimate goals of our field is to be able to predict geomagnetic storms and space weather as one predicts terrestrial weather. However, we’ve only been in space for about 60 years and we're still trying to figure out what it's like up there. That's where my research comes in. I study the loss of electrons from the Earth’s radiation belts. These electrons that we study are known culprits for causing problems our technology. We still have a lot to learn, not just about the physics of what occurs up in space, not just about the different types of events in the Sun-Earth system, but also about what types of space weather events affect technology and life. As of today we are able to look at (and are getting better at nowcasting, and a bit of forecasting) largish scale events analogous to pressure systems, but even one random strike of lighting can have a great affect.
Alexa Halford
Space Physics/Space Weather Researcher
Space Physics/Space Weather Researcher