Dr. Welling has an established career in magnetospheric physics and numerical model development. He was a core member of the team that transitioned the SWMF to operations and continues to lead several funded research projects. He is currently Co-PI of an 11-person, 5-partner institution NSF PREEVENTS team where he exercises the management and organizational skills required for CUSIA. He has led several science teams to produce timely deliverables, most recently for NASA CCMC’s International Forum on Space Weather Assessment.

Dr. Lopez has considerable center experience as one of the Co-Directors of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM), as well as other administrative and community leadership experience. Dr. Lopez acts as the Section head for the educational and professional development activities of the center, drives team development, ensures the center is meeting deliverables, and develops assessable metrics for the project’s goals. Dr. Lopez is an expert in magnetospheric and ionospheric physics, with considerable experience with a wide range of ground-based and spacecraft observations as well as the LFM MHD code.

Following graduation from Augsburg University 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. She then moved to the Aerospace Corporation and is now the Associate Lab Chief of the Ionosphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere lab at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. At Goddard she works as the Heliophysics and Space Weather Goddard strategic lead for Artemis, the deputy PI for petitSat, and on several other committees/working groups associated with space weather.

Dr. Strangeway has worked on the general topic of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling since the mid 1990’s with the launch of the Fast Auroral Snapshot Small Explorer. His work calibrating and analyzing magnetometer data has resulted in deep contributions to understanding of M-I coupling in publications [e.g., Strangeway, 2009; 2012] and widely-used heliophysics text books [Russell et al., 2016]. His experience with field-aligned current phenomenology, as well as his interest in the role of force balance in determining how field-aligned currents flow to the ionosphere is germane to the objective of the Asymmetry DRIVE Science Center. Dr. Strangeway’s experience with both the data and the underlying processes that cause asymmetric responses will be essential for furthering the scientific goals of CUSIA, where he will act as Section Head for the observations sub-team. He will also lead educational efforts at UCLA.

Dr. Gabrielse has extensive experience in both ground-based and satellite observations with a heavy interest in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. Her recent work includes using SuperDARN to understand the asymmetrical response of mesoscale flows in the ionosphere during summer and winter hemispheres. Her background has focused on studying mesoscale magnetosphere transients (e.g., injections, BBFs, dipolarizations) using THEMIS, Van Allen Probes, and MMS, along with their signatures in the ionosphere using all-sky-imagers, magnetometers, riometers, and SuperDARN. She contributes the analysis of these various data sources to the CUSIA team. Dr. Gabrielse has extensive experience in organizing workshop and conference sessions as a GEM Focus Group leader and AGU primary chair, which she leans on to help design CUSIA workshops.

Dr. Glocer has been developing and studying coupled models of the space environment system for more than ten years. During that time he has developed a model of ion outflow, contributed to the development of ring current, radiation belt, and global magnetosphere models, and developed couplings in the Space Weather Modeling Framework integrating these disparate models together. He has recently been exploring hemispheric asymmetries as they relate to ion outflow and composition, and how those effects impact the ring current and reconnection. He will explore those effects in this project as well as contributing to studies of asymmetries associated with MI coupling. He will moreover support the use of the PWOM model and model couplings including PWOM-CIMI-BATSRUS for these efforts.

Dr. Zhu is currently working at National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR) where he focuses on improving high-latitude electrodynamic forcing specifications in general circulation models (GCMs). Dr. Zhu has contributed improvements to the electrodynamo solver in the Global Ionosphere and Thermosphere Model (GITM). He has also developed an empirical model, named for Auroral energy Spectrum and High-Latitude Electric field variability (ASHLEY), that can improve low-energy electron precipitation and electric field variability specifications in GCMs. Dr. Zhu helps the CUSIA team by utilizing more realistic high-latitude electrodynamical forcings (e.g., field-aligned currents) to drive GITM in order to investigate some interhemispheric asymmetry phenomena.

A great and mighty ruler.