Konstantinos Horaites
Space Scientist
CV PUBLICATIONS CODE
BEFORE Jan. 11, 2025: Take the Space Physics Postdoc Survey!
POSTDOCS AND OTHER NON-PERMANENT RESEARCHERS –
I co-wrote a survey to measure the working conditions and career prospects of non-permanent researchers in space physics. If that's relevant to you, Please fill out the survey found at the link below!
ALSO, check out my talk on this topic at the session ED11B - Reenvisioning the Postdoctoral Experience in Earth and Space Sciences at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2024 conference.
About Me
I'm a physics postdoc at the University of Helsinki, working in the Vlasiator team (PI Prof. Minna Palmroth). I use computer simulations to assess the impact of a large solar storm on satellites and electrical power grids.
Before moving abroad, I did my first postdoc at LASP in Boulder, CO, USA as a member of Laila Andersson's group. There I studied the kinetic physics of electrons in Mars's magnetosheath.
I received my PhD in Physics (2019) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I wrote my thesis, "Theory and Observations of Runaway Electrons in the Solar Wind", under the advisement of Prof. Stanislav Boldyrev.
I got my start at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Lab, where I studied the solar wind as part of Prof. Stuart Bale's group.
Presentations
Some of my talks and poster presentations are highlighted below.
Martian Magnetosheath Electrons
Solar Wind Halo and the Ambipolar Potential
Magnetopause Oscillations
Solar Wind Strahl
Hybrid-Vlasov Simulation Validation
Solar Wind Kinetic Instabilities
Self-Similar Electron Distributions
Teaching
Teaching Assistant (University of Helsinki): FYS2016/2017--Electrodynamics, Spring 2024 (course description)
Lecturer (CU-Boulder): Astronomy 2600--Intro to Scientific Programming, Summer 2020 (course description)
Teaching Assistant (UW Madison): Physics 202--Electricity and Magnetism, Fall 2015-Summer 2017
Data
As part of my thesis project I restored the high-resolution data from the Wind satellite's SWE Strahl detector. The data are now archived on CDAWeb, where you can also browse summary GIFs like this.
Other
Check out the board game I co-designed, titled "Co-op"! Published through the Gamecrafter, LLC website.
