Who we are
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Dr. Tony PhillipsDr. Tony Phillips is a professional astronomer and science writer, best known for his authorship of Spaceweather.com. He received his PhD from Cornell University in 1992 and worked for many years after that as a radio astronomer at Caltech. He has published more than 100 refereed articles in research journals such as Nature, the Astrophysical Journal, and the Journal of Geophysical Research. Research interests include planetary and neutron star magnetospheres, radio storms on Jupiter, and cosmic rays. Recent work related to Rads on a Plane includes the following: In 2015, he led a series of high-altitude balloon launches in support of NASA's RAD-X (Radiation Dosimetry Experiment) mission to explore radiation hazards to air travelers. In 2016, he was named to the working group for NASA's Living With a Star Institute on Aviation Radiation (a.k.a. "SAFESKY"). He is a co-author of the following referred papers on aviation radiation: Advances in Atmospheric Radiation Measurements and Modeling Needed to Improve Air Safety (2015, Space Weather); Space Weather Ballooning (2016, Space Weather); Atmospheric radiation modeling of galactic cosmic rays using LRO/CRaTER and the EMMREM model with comparisons to balloon and airline based measurements (2016, Space Weather). In 2016, Tony delivered the keynote address at NOAA Space Weather Workshop: "Using Microbes as Biological Radiation Sensors.” | |
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Hervey AllenOver the past 10 years, Hervey Allen has flown close to 2,000,000 miles and absorbed cosmic radiation doses equal to many thoracic chest X-rays. This gives the computer scientist from the University of Oregon a special interest in keeping track of "Rads on a Plane." Hervey has developed techniques for collecting GPS-tagged measurements of secondary cosmic rays inside airplanes and written code to predict dose rates on flights anywhere in the world. His proprietary optimization of NOAA's World Magnetic Model computes components of Earth's magnetic field so rapidly, our customers will be able to receive realtime radiation alerts while they're still in the air. Hervey is the lead programmer for Rads on a Plane and Spaceweather Alerts as well as overal system and database admin for Astrophysics.com, LLC. He is, also, a frequent blogger, sharing his stories about data gathering as a frequent flyer for science. | |
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Katharine AllenKatharine is a professional interpreter with a background in marketing and communications. Her interpreting skills are invaluable as we travel around the world gathering radiation data in places where we sometimes can't speak the language. Although not a professional scientist, Katharine has learned to take cosmic ray data on airplanes, and she has contributed thousands of GPS-tagged radiation measurements to our growing database. Katharine's background as a world traveler, cosmic ray data-taker, and communicator puts her in a unique position to correct the rest of the team when they use jargon that a lay person might not understand. She is the webmaster of RadsonaPlane.com and SpaceweatherAlerts.com. |