FDSS: A New Tenure-Track Solar Physicist at University of Colorado (CU)-Boulder: Catalyst for Change

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The University of Colorado at Boulder (CU/Boulder) proposes to hire a new tenure-track faculty member in Solar Physics, to complement Boulder's strong community in solar and space physics both at CU and at institutions across the Boulder Valley (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Space Environment Center (NOAA/SEC), National Center for Atmospheric Research/High Altitude Observatory (NCAR/HAO), Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), etc). Currently, despite the large number of solar physicists in the Boulder community, there is no tenure track faculty member actively working in solar physics at CU, significantly inhibiting the growth of CU graduate programs in this space physics discipline. The potential addition of a faculty line in solar physics comes at an opportune time of overall transformation of the solar and space physics graduate and upper-division undergraduate programs on the CU/Boulder campus, including the development of a new integrative first-year graduate course in solar and space physics and new cross-departmental graduate courses. This proposal would enhance these endeavors, as well as support a named graduate student fellowship and an undergraduate research program.Because the space industry is a mature and essential part of the global economy and the commercial and governmental interests of the United States, it is essential that the US cultivate the talent needed to thrive and excel in this arena. This proposal would develop new talent for the US work force through both enhanced graduate and undergraduate education, an imperative identified in the recent NRC Decadal Survey on space physics. Space weather and the concomitant threats it poses to our technological infrastructure present important societal impacts. The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU/Boulder, the research home of the new faculty hire, has a leading role in knowledge transfer and empirical modeling as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored Center for Integrated Space weather Modeling (CISM). LASP performs this work in close cooperation with NCAR and NOAA/SEC, pursuing efforts to consolidate and integrate results from many international research programs and campaigns. The strengthening of solar and space physics at CU/Boulder will directly enhance LASP's ongoing Education and Public Outreach program in space weather. This EPO program is gaining national recognition for its space physics curriculum enhancements, teacher workshops, distance learning programming, and its new planetarium show entitled "Space Storm."