Laboratory researcher named AGU Fellow

Contact: Shelley Thompson, shelley@lanl.gov, (505) 665-7778

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 5, 2001 -- Michelle Thomsen, a scientist at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, has been named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, a selection based upon her pre-eminence in science.

"I was greatly surprised to receive this honor, and I am extremely honored and appreciative. Putting nominations together takes a lot of time and the fact that my busy colleagues would take the time to put them together on my behalf is a gratifying feeling," Thomsen said.

Thomsen was elected an AGU Fellow for fundamental contributions to the physics of collisionless shocks and the Jovian and terrestrial magnetospheres.

Thomsen is now among a very elite group of scientists. Only one tenth of one percent of the total AGU membership become a fellow in any given year, and only two percent of the total union's members are fellows.
Thomsen received her doctorate in physics from the University of Iowa in 1977. She did her postdoctoral work at the University of Iowa and at the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy in Lindau, Germany, before coming to Los Alamos in 1981. She became a Laboratory Fellow in 1997. Currently Thomsen serves as the Space Physics Team Leader in the Space and Atmospheric Sciences group.

"The challenge of my work is to take the numbers we get from the instruments aboard satellites and extract the physics from them," Thomsen said.

Thomsen is currently working on three different projects. The first involves interpreting the data from the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, which is on the Cassini spacecraft traveling to Saturn. Two of the three instruments aboard this spacecraft were designed and partially built at Los Alamos. She is also the lead person analyzing space weather data from Los Alamos plasma instruments aboard satellites in geosynchronous orbit. Her third project involves helping to interpret the neutral atom images of the magnetosphere obtained by Los Alamos instrumentation on the IMAGE satellite, particularly by comparing the images to in situ measurements from other satellites within the region being imaged.

Thomsen is an author on 241 publications.

The selection process for electing AGU Fellows is a two-step process. First come nominations in a section, which are reviewed and winnowed, then submitted to the union selection committee for consideration. The second stage is the election of fellows from this pool of nominees by the committee. This year only 39 of the 39,000 members received the honor of fellow.

Thomsen will accept her honor and certificate at the fall AGU meeting in December in San Francisco, Calif.

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