Daniel Baker

Dr. Daniel Baker is Director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado-Boulder and is Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and Professor of Physics there. His primary research interest is the study of plasma physical and energetic particle phenomena in planetary magnetospheres and in the Earth's vicinity. He conducts research in space instrument design, space physics data analysis, and magnetospheric modeling.

Dr. Baker has published over 700 papers in the refereed literature and has edited six books on topics in space physics. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He currently is an investigator on several NASA space missions including the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission, the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission, and the Canadian ORBITALS mission.

He has won numerous awards for his research efforts and for his management activities including recognition by the Institute for Scientific Information as being “Highly Cited” in space research. Dr. Baker was chosen as a 2007 winner of the University of Colorado’s Robert L. Stearns Award for outstanding research, service, and teaching. Dr. Baker presently serves on several national and international scientific committees and he presently serves on advisory panels of the U.S. Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He was a member of the NRC’s 2003 Decadal Survey Panel for solar and space physics and he was a member of the 2006 Decadal Assessment of the U.S. National Space Weather Program. He currently is a member of the NRC Space Studies Board and chairs the Committee on Solar and Space Physics (CSSP).