S-LAC Members

Name

Institution

Website/
ORCID

Personal Statement

Brianna Isola (Chair)

UNH

tbd

Brianna Isola is a 5th year space physics Ph.D. candidate at the University of New Hampshire. Her main interests and expertise include magnetospheric modeling, the inner magnetospheric electric field, and machine learning/AI for space weather forecasting. She hopes to bring her perspective and previous studentship roles to make AGU an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students.

Kathryn Wilbanks

UMich

After receiving her Bachelors of Science in Physics at the University of Texas at Arlington, Kathryn Wilbanks is now a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan in the Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering Department. Her research focuses on impacts of extreme space weather events and their effects on the whole Sun to Earth system. Kathryn spends some of her spare time on Space Science policy and advocacy while also serving as a student representative for Space Weather Workshop. 

Tyler Eddy is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. His research is in space instrumentation with an emphasis on time-of-flight mass spectrometers as well as in situ plasma composition and kinetic particle measurements of the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres. In his spare time Tyler helps manage K-12 science outreach events for after school and summer programs in surrounding communities.

Vincent Ledvina is a Space Physics Ph.D. student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks researching auroral beads and using citizen science to study rare auroral phenomena. Vincent is also a SciX ambassador, intern at the Aerospace Corporation, and the student representative for the Space Weather Advisory Group, a White House Federal Advisory Committee. Vincent saw his first aurora in Minnesota when he was four years old during the Halloween Storms of 2003, and since then, he has had a passion for aurora chasing and night sky photography. In his free time, he runs an aurora tour business and hosts an annual photography workshop in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Alvin Angels

Alvin Angeles is a third-year PhD student in Heliophysics at the University of New Hampshire. His research focuses on investigating the behavior of solar wind turbulence at small scales. Prior to this, he earned his bachelors from the University of Colorado Boulder in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Alvin is passionate about promoting interdisciplinary science, particularly in the realm of the Sun-Earth system. Outside of his academic pursuits, Alvin enjoys spending his free time outdoors hiking, skiing, and running.

I'm a 3rd-year PhD student in Space Science at the University of New Hampshire. I am currently pursuing my PhD under the advisorship of Matthew Argall, working on the project "Relative Entropy in Reconnection and Turbulence: Quantifying Its Characteristics and the Influence of Electromagnetic Fields." Using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, my research focuses on identifying and quantifying key mechanisms of energy conversion in collisionless plasmas, such as magnetic reconnection and turbulence. While energy transfer is traditionally linked to the second moment of the Vlasov-Maxwell equation, this approach does not account for changes in higher-order moments. The distribution function can also change shape, representing a previously overlooked energy source. By formulating energy transfer using relative entropy, my work incorporates these higher-order contributions, providing a more comprehensive understanding of entropy-driven energy conversion in space plasmas. If I'm not doing research, I'm running! I ended up with a pair of running shoes and have been running ever since—I've raced two marathons and intend to do more. I have a deep love for analog photography and enjoy capturing moments on film.