Understanding the Sources of Energetic Particles in the Heliosphere

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific postdoctoral fellowship opportunity is within the Heliophysics Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The fellow would work closely with Drs. de Nolfo and Christian with a goal of facilitating the analysis and interpretation of energetic particle data within the Heliosphere. Despite sixty years of observations since their discovery, the origin of highest energy solar particles in space remains uncertain and is still debated within scientific circles. The fellowship involves analyzing data from missions including ACE, STEREO, Wind, PAMELA, and Parker Solar Probe, which provides the first measurements of solar energetic particles near the Sun. The postdoctoral fellowship would also include hardware development within the Energetic Particle Laboratory, working on both charged and neutral particle detection for upcoming mission opportunities.