Christopher T. Russell

Christopher Thomas Russell (born 1943, St. Albans, England) is head of the Space Physics Center at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) at UCLA, professor in UCLA's Department of Earth and Space Sciences, and Director of the UCLA Branch of the California Space Grant Consortium. He received a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto in 1964 and a Ph.D. from UCLA in 1968. In 1977 he was awarded the James B. Macelwane Medal^[1] and in 2003 the John Adam Fleming Medal^[2] by the American Geophysical Union. Asteroid 21459 Chrisrussell was named after him in 2008.^[3] He has three grandchildren.

Research

• He led the Magnetic Fields Experiments on NASA's Polar satellite to map the earth's magnetosphere.^[4]
• He leads NASA's Dawn Mission team.^[5] Dawn will orbit Vesta in 2011 and 2012 and Ceres in 2015. It will be the first spacecraft to orbit two celestial bodies.
• In collaboration with John L. Philips he has studied the ashen light on Venus.
• He has studied the solar wind through his participation in NASA's STEREO and the European Space Agency's Venus Express missions.

Notes

1. ^ "James B. Macelwane Medal". American Geophysical Union. http://www.agu.org/about/honors/union/macelwane/. Retrieved March 17, 2011. 
2. ^ "Christopher T. Russell receives 2003 John Adam Fleming Medal". American Geophysical Union. http://www.agu.org/about/honors/union/fleming/russell_christophert.shtml. Retrieved March 17, 2003. 
3. ^ Minor Planet Circulars (Internation Astronomical Union): 63393, 2008 July 13 
4. ^ "NASA's Polar Mission: Unlocking the Secrets of Earth's Magnetosphere". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/polar/. Retrieved March 17, 2011. 
5. ^ "Dawn mission gets Vesta asteroid target practice", Science Daily, March 13, 2011, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110311140847.htm, retrieved March 17, 2011 .

External links

• Asplund, Shari (June 2007), "Interview with Chris Russell", Discovery and New Frontiers News (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), http://discovery.nasa.gov/newsletter/newsletter_archive/2007/June2007.swf .
• Behne, Jacinta (March 13, 2004). "Meet Dawn's Principal Investigator Chris Russell". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/team/interviews/interview_c_russell.asp. Retrieved March 17, 2011. 
• "Christopher T. Russell's home page at the Space Physics Center". http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/personnel/russell.html. Retrieved March 17, 2011. 

Persondata
Name	Russell, Christopher T.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1943
Place of birth	St. Albans, England
Date of death
Place of death