Scott Robertson Bio

Fellow

Ph.D. 1972, Cornell University

Science Learning Lab, 3400 Marine Street - Room: SLL246

Phone: 303-735-4305

Fax: 303-492-0642

 

Prof. Robertson does experimental research in basic plasma physics coupled with computational modeling, most of which is related to dust in plasmas. He is presently involved in two research areas. (1) The polar ionosphere contains meteoric dust particles that are the nucleation sites for icy cloud particles. Students construct instruments for rockets that return data from 80-120 km altitude on the charge-to-mass ratio and number density of these particles so that their characteristics can be entered into models of the ionosphere. (2) Scott is an investigator in the Solar System Exploration Virtual Institute (SSERVI) at the University of Colorado, called the Institute for Modeling, Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT). The institute constructs laboratory models of dusty surfaces in space and exposes the surfaces to ultraviolet light, plasma, and simulated solar wind to reproduce the plasma environment at the surfaces of the Moon and other airless bodies. The goal is to characterize these surfaces to facilitate NASA exploration missions and to design instruments that will return data on the plasma and charged dust at the surface.