Rice Physicist Earns White House Honor

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Rice physicist earns White House honor

David Alexander awarded Presidential Early Career Award

HOUSTON — (June 16, 2005) — Rice University astrophysicist David Alexander has been named a recipient of the 2004 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, one of the nation’s foremost honors for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers.

David Alexander

Alexander, the Andrew Hayes Buchanan Associate Professor of Astrophysics, was one of 58 researchers honored in a White House ceremony on Monday that was presided over by John H. Marburger III, science adviser to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

”David Alexander’s research into the creation of solar flares and other basic solar phenomena is helping to unravel long-standing mysteries about the inner workings of our sun,” said Rice President David Leebron. ”His analytical and experimental accomplishments are matched by his dedication to public outreach, particularly his efforts to excite school children about the wonders of science. He is an outstanding example of the kind of scientist-educator our nation needs.”

Alexander, who joined Rice in 2003, specializes in the study of the sun. His work in the fields of solar and solar terrestrial physics spans theory, modeling, simulation and data analysis. He has helped develop models of solar flares and worked on a range of other problems, including coronal heating, 3D simulations of the corona, large-scale eruptions and coronal mass ejections, and magnetic reconnection.

Prior to joining Rice, Alexander participated in the operation, data analysis, and education and public outreach programs for Yohkoh, a solar observatory launched in 1991 with joint funding from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.

He subsequently spent seven years at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab, serving as a research scientist on both Yohkoh and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).

Throughout his career, Alexander has been active in the areas of education and public outreach. He works regularly with NASA’s Sun-Earth Connections Education Forum, and he created the successful and long-running Solar Week educational program, which offers teachers a weeklong series of Web-based educational activities designed to spark the interest of pre-teens and teenagers in science. For more information, visit http://www.solarweek.org/.

The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers were established in 1996 to honor the most promising researchers in the nation. Eight federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers at the start of their independent careers whose work shows exceptional promise for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge during the twenty-first century. Participating agencies award these talented scientists and engineers up to five years of funding to further their research in support of critical government missions. Alexander’s nomination was put forward by NASA.