Los Alamos researcher named American Geophysical Union fellow

Ruth Skoug, of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Space Science and Applications group, was named fellow by the American Geophysical Union (AGU); Skoug is among 63 new fellows this year. Since 1962, AGU has elected fewer than 0.1 percent of its members to join this prestigious group of individuals.

She was selected for her far-reaching impact to experimental space plasma physics in the solar wind and magnetosphere.

“Ruth’s research has played a major role in the understanding of both solar wind physics and magnetospheric physics,” said Nancy Jo Nicholas, associate Laboratory director for Global Security. “I congratulate her on this much-deserved recognition.”

Skoug is an expert in solar wind and magnetospheric plasma dynamics and charged particle instrumentation for space physics applications. Her research interests include the development of space plasma instrumentation, solar wind electron distributions, interplanetary coronal mass ejections, solar wind variability and implications for space weather forecasting, global imaging of the magnetosphere and ion composition of the magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms.

Her current scientific activities involve the analysis of solar wind electron and ion plasma data from instruments flying on spacecraft across the solar system, often sensors that she built, calibrated, operates and for which she leads the science analysis team. She has received NASA Group Achievement Awards for contributions to numerous NASA missions. Skoug is currently the principal investigator for the Solar Wind Electron Instrument on NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe mission.

Skoug earned her doctoral and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Washington and her bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from St. Olaf College.

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