Philip J. Erickson has been named the brand new director of MIT Haystack Observatory, efficient Jan. 1, 2024. In main the radio science observatory in Westford, Massachusetts, Erickson, who’s presently Haystack’s affiliate director, succeeds longtime director Colin J. Lonsdale, who earlier this yr shared his intent to step down.
Maria Zuber, MIT’s vp for analysis, introduced Erickson’s appointment right this moment, saying, “Phil is an achieved radio scientist and ionosphere-magnetosphere researcher with a robust observe file of management throughout the Haystack analysis group and effectively past.”
“The observatory and its group of researchers are in glorious fingers,” she added.
An interdisciplinary analysis middle, MIT Haystack Observatory was inbuilt 1961 as a part of MIT Lincoln Laboratory and gained unbiased standing in 1970. The Haystack mission is to develop expertise for radio science purposes, to check the construction of our galaxy and the bigger universe, advance scientific data of our planet and its house setting, and contribute to the training of future scientists and engineers. Analysis teams in astronomy, geodesy, geospace, and house expertise are united by a give attention to radio science. Positioned roughly 30 miles northwest of MIT’s Cambridge campus, the Haystack facility helps a variety of massive radio telescopes and antennas. Analysis and engineering initiatives embody each native radio science and expertise improvement in addition to world management and collaboration within the subject.
Erickson obtained his doctorate in house plasma physics from Cornell College in 1998; he started science and technical work at Haystack in 1995 and has served as head of its atmospheric and geospace sciences group since 2015. Erickson joined the Haystack director’s workplace as assistant director additionally in 2015 and was appointed affiliate director in 2020. He’s the lead principal investigator for a number of initiatives, together with the Nationwide Science Basis-sponsored Millstone Hill Geospace Facility. He co-directs Haystack’s instructional and public outreach applications in addition to the observatory’s scholar analysis applications.
The observatory will proceed to construct upon its historical past of radio science innovation, Erickson says: “Haystack Observatory has lengthy been acknowledged as a pacesetter within the science and expertise of radio and radar distant sensing for basic analysis on areas that stretch from our planet’s polar caps and higher ambiance to the photo voltaic system, black holes, stars, galaxies, and even the construction of the early universe. I’m excited to work with the devoted and really proficient Haystack employees to proceed and develop our analysis in all these areas, for the advantage of humanity’s fixed quest to develop data of our world and universe.”
Throughout the geospace science subject, which research the coupled Earth-sun system, Erickson’s major pursuits give attention to basic physics and dynamics of the ionized and impartial parts of Earth’s higher ambiance and surrounding magnetosphere, together with the observational strategy of collective Thomson/incoherent scatter radar concept and follow.
Along with the varied management roles he holds inside Haystack, Erickson is devoted to fostering group engagement within the fields of geospace sciences and radio wave distant sensing; he serves as a member of quite a few nationwide and worldwide teams, together with the Nationwide Academies of Science, Engineering, and Drugs (NASEM) Committee on Radio Frequencies, and is a co-chair of the ionosphere-atmosphere panel within the 2024-33 NASEM Heliophysics Decadal Survey. He’s a frequent journal reviewer and serves as editor for a number of peer-reviewed publications. Erickson can be an energetic member of the novice radio group, with a give attention to partaking operators throughout the US in productive ionospheric citizen science.
Erickson succeeds Colin Lonsdale, who’s stepping down as Haystack director after greater than 15 years on the helm. Lonsdale, a radio astronomer, earned his doctorate diploma in 1981 from the Jodrell Financial institution Observatory, part of the Victoria College of Manchester within the U.Okay. He joined Haystack in 1986 and was named director in 2008. Lonsdale might be persevering with at Haystack as a principal analysis scientist, specializing in analysis involving a spread of matters together with energetic galaxies, photo voltaic emissions at low radio frequencies, and ideas for modern radio science house missions.
“Phil Erickson is an impressive alternative for the brand new director, and the observatory will prosper beneath his succesful management,” says Lonsdale.
