Barry Mauk

Dr. Barry H. Mauk has been studying planetary space environments, or planetary magnetospheres, since the early 1970s, beginning with the Earth’s magnetosphere and then branching out into the gas giant magnetospheres when he joined the Voyager program in the mid-1980s. He has since concentrated his efforts on the physics of the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) through his involvement with the Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini programs, and now NASA's Juno program. Recent achievements include the discovery of a massive gas torus associated with Jupiter’s enigmatic moon Europa, the discovery of Earth-like energetic particle injections at Jupiter and Saturn that give rise to transients within the northern and southern lights, the identification of key similarities and differences in the processes that control the electron radiation belts and energetic ion populations of all of the strongly magnetized planets of the solar system, and the discovery of key differences between the processes that generate aurora at Jupiter and Earth. His interests have recently shifted back to Earth’s magnetosphere, specifically reconnection processes, with his involvement as the lead investigator for energetic particles on NASA’s MMS mission. He is actively involved with one other active NASA flight program as lead investigator for an energetic particle instrument on the Juno mission, now orbiting Jupiter. His major program involvements, past and present, include the following: co-investigator, Voyager Low-Energy Charged Particle Investigation; team member, Galileo Energetic Particles Detector Investigation; principal investigator, ENA Camera for EOS (canceled after Phase B); project scientist, Nuclear Electric Propulsion Space Test Program (canceled after Phase B); co-investigator, Cassini Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument Investigation; project scientist, NASA’s TIMED Project for Phase B development; lead investigator, Energetic Particle Detector on the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission; lead investigator, Juno Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument; and project scientist, NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission for the development and prime mission.