The European Geosciences Union (EGU) announced today that David McComas is a recipient of the 2022 Hannes Alfvén Medal for his Plasma consists of a gas heated to sufficiently high temperatures that the atoms ionize. The properties of the gas are controlled by electromagnetic forces among constituent ions and electrons, which results in different behavior than gas made primarily of neutral atoms like the Earth’s atmosphere. Plasma is often considered the fourth state of matter (besides solid, liquid, and gas). Most of the matter in the Universe is in the plasma state. physics research.
The European Geosciences Union (EGU) announced today that David McComas is a recipient of the 2022 Hannes Alfvén Medal for his Plasma consists of a gas heated to sufficiently high temperatures that the atoms ionize. The properties of the gas are controlled by electromagnetic forces among constituent ions and electrons, which results in different behavior than gas made primarily of neutral atoms like the Earth’s atmosphere. Plasma is often considered the fourth state of matter (besides solid, liquid, and gas). Most of the matter in the Universe is in the plasma state. physics research.
“These individuals are honored for their important contributions to the Earth, planetary, and space sciences,” said the EGU in their announcement.
The Hannes Alfvén Medal commemorates the scientific achievements of the 1970 Nobel laureate in physics, and it is awarded for outstanding scientific contributions towards the understanding of plasma processes in the solar system and other cosmical plasma environments.
McComas, Princeton’s vice president for the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab and a professor of astrophysical sciences, pursues research across nearly all of space plasma physics, including the solar The outermost region of the Sun's atmosphere, consisting of thin, ionized gases at a temperature of about 1,000,000 K. It is visible to the naked eye during a solar eclipse., A stream of charged particles, mostly protons and electrons, that escapes into the Sun's outer atmosphere at high speeds and streams out into the solar system in all directions., terrestrial and planetary magnetospheres, and the outer The bubble-like region surrounding the solar system inflated by the solar wind, shielding the solar system from interstellar radiation. and its interaction with the The interstellar material surrounding our solar system found directly outside of the heliosphere.. He is an experimentalist who has led or participated in dozens of NASA missions, including as principal investigator of NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), scheduled to launch in 2025.
He also served as the principal investigator for the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission and the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISʘIS) energetic particle instrument suite on Parker Solar Probe, among many others.
McComas has invented instruments for space applications and holds seven patents. He is an author of more than 700 scientific journal papers spanning topics in heliospheric, magnetospheric, solar and planetary science, as well as space instrument and mission development.
He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received numerous awards and accolades, including NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal in 2015, the 2014 COSPAR Space Science Award, and AGU’s James B. Macelwane Award in 1993.
He will receive the Hannes Alfvén Medal during the next EGU General Assembly in April 2022.
Learn more on the Princeton website.