2026 Smead Symposium
Symposium Agenda
Friday, May 8
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 11:00 a.m. | Arrive at the Sonnenalp (either check into rooms as available or store luggage) |
| 12:00 p.m. | Lunch in the Bavarian Room. |
| 12:30 p.m. | Welcome and Opening Remarks from Ann Smead & Michael Byram. |
| 12:45 p.m. | Program Update from Interim Smead Director |
| 1:00 p.m. | Introduction of 2026 Smead Scholars
|
| 1:05 p.m. | Scholars Elevator Pitches |
| 1:15 p.m. | Technical Talk - Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez, Byram Distinguished Visiting Professor |
| 2:00 p.m. | Break |
| 2:10 p.m. | Alumni Updates |
| 4:00 p.m. | Keynote Speaker – Dan Baker, Director, Colorado Space Policy Center |
| 5:30 p.m. | Informal Cocktail hour – please join us once you are checked in and ready |
| 6:20 p.m. | Group Photo Outside Swiss Chalet |
| 6:30 p.m. | Dinner at Swiss Chalet |
Saturday, May 9
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 8:00 a.m. | Breakfast at Ludwig’s Restaurant |
| 9:30 a.m. | Student Scholar Poster Sessions in the Fletcher and Kimpton Rooms
|
| 11:30 a.m. | Lunch |
| 12:30 p.m. | Technical Talk - Ulubilge Ulusoy, inaugural Smead Distinguished Postdoctoral Associate |
| 1:15 p.m. | Alumni Technical Updates |
| 2:00 p.m. | Afternoon Activities
|
| 6:00 p.m. | Dinner at Avanti |
Sunday, May 10
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 8:00 a.m. | Breakfast in the Bavarian Room. |
| 8:45 a.m. | College Update - Keith Molenaar, Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science |
| 9:00 a.m. | Technical Talk - Tomoko Matsuo, Faculty Fellow |
| 9:50 a.m. | Break |
| 10:00 a.m. | Technical Talk - Jay McMahon, Faculty Fellow |
| 10:50 a.m. | Ann & Michael Closing Remarks |
| 11:20 a.m. | Steering Committee Only – Symposium Wrap |
Keynote Speaker
Dan Baker
National Academy Member ● Director, Colorado Space Policy Center
Daniel N. Baker is Director of the Colorado Space Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also a Distinguished Professor of Planetary and Space Physics at CU Boulder.
Baker studied under Prof. James A. Van Allen and subsequently worked with Prof. Edward C. Stone at the California Institute of Technology. He was Group Leader for Space Plasma Physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory (1981-1987) and then was Laboratory Chief at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He directed the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder through 2024.
Baker is a lead investigator on NASA missions including the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission and the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). He chaired the U. S. National Academy 2013-2022 Decadal Survey in Solar and Space Physics. He has edited nine books and published over 1000 refereed research papers (h-index=135, with over 60,000 citations).
He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the International Academy of Astronautics, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
Baker also was the 2010 winner of the AIAA James Van Allen Space Environments Medal. In 2015, Baker was chosen as the Vikram A. Sarabhai Professor of the Indian Physical Research Laboratory. He also received the Shen Kuo Medal of IAGA (2015), the Colorado Governor’s Award for High-Impact Research related to his Space Weather research (2016), the William Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union (2018), the Hannes Alfven Medal of the European Geosciences Union (2019), and the Jeoujang Jaw Medal of COSPAR (2024).
