Professor Baker is being honored for his leadership in the study and development of predictive tools for the Earth’s radiation environment as well as for his work on radiation’s impact on the nation’s security. He is engaged in a broad range of service, research, and education activities that affect knowledge transfer in space research and space weather. He works extensively with industry and the U.S. Department of Defense to share knowledge about the space environment and its impact on human technological systems. Professor Baker has experience in the analysis of large data sets from spacecraft in geostationary orbit and has been involved in missions to the Earth’s deep magnetotail and comets to study solar wind-magnetospheric energy coupling and theoretical modeling of the possible role of heavy ions in the development of magnetotail instabilities. Much of his research effort is directed toward understanding magnetospheric substorms and how these disturbances contribute to anomalies in the operation of near-Earth spacecraft. A CU-Boulder faculty member since 1994, Professor Baker teaches undergraduate and early-career graduate students about space science at CU-Boulder and at the National Science Foundation Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling summer school.
