Mary Hudson (born January 6, 1949} is the Eleanor and Kelvin Smith Distinguished Professor of Physics at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

. She is known for her research on the weather patterns that occur due to solar eruptions. She was elected a fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

in 1984.

Education and career

While in college, Hudson worked for the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation as a mathematician and earned her B.S. from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA) in 1969. She then worked for the

Aerospace Corporation The Aerospace Corporation is an American nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). The corporation provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil ...

while working on her M.S. degree which she earned from UCLA in 1971. She earned her Ph.D. in 1974 from the University of California, Los Angeles. Following her Ph.D., Hudson joined the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

where she remained until 1985 when she moved to Dartmouth College. In 1990 she was promoted to professor. From 2010 until 2016, she retained an affiliate position at the

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundat ...

in the High Altitude Observatory.

Research

Hudson's interest in space developed as a child raised during the

space race The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between t ...

who had her own childhood telescope. Starting with her Ph.D. research, Hudson worked on the spread ''F'' problem, a phenomenon known to impact the transmission of signals by satellites. During her time at the University of California Berkeley, Hudson worked on the team led by

Forrest Mozer Forrest S. Mozer (born February 13, 1929, in Lincoln, Nebraska) is an American experimental physicist, inventor, and entrepreneur known best for his pioneering work on electric field measurements in space plasma and for development of solid stat ...

that made the first electric field measurements in the ionosphere using the S3-3 satellite; the electrostatic shocks they measured accelerate electrons to make the

aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

s that can be seen at night in high latitudes. Hudson's research on

geomagnetic storm A geomagnetic storm, also known as a magnetic storm, is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere that is driven by interactions between the magnetosphere and large-scale transient Plasma (physics), plasma and magnetic field structur ...

s, disruptions in the Earth's

magnetosphere In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior Dynamo ...

, establishes the conditions that cause radiation belts to form during these storms. From 2002 until 2013, Hudson co-lead the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling. Her research on this project centered on

physics, especially the trapping of

solar energetic particles Solar energetic particles (SEP), formerly known as solar cosmic rays, are high-energy, charged particles originating in the solar atmosphere and solar wind. They consist of protons, electrons and heavy ions with energies ranging from a few tens ...

, which has consequences for technology used on Earth. Hudson has also examined the movement of particles in radiation belts, the

Van Allen radiation belt The Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others ma ...

s, that surround the Earth.

Selected publications

* * * * *

Awards and honors

In 1984, Hudson was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and awarded the

James B. Macelwane Medal The James B. Macelwane Medal is awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union to three to five early career scientists (no more than 10 years beyond having received their Ph.D.). It is named after James B. Macelwane, a Jesuit priest and one of ...

, thereby becoming the first woman to receive the award. She gave the Van Allen Lecture for the American Geophysical Union in 2006, and received the James A. Van Allen Space Environments Award from the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecra ...

in 2012. In 2017, she received the John Adam Fleming Medal from the American Geophysical Union.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson, Mary K. University of California, Los Angeles alumni Dartmouth College faculty National Center for Atmospheric Research faculty Fellows of the American Geophysical Union 20th-century women physicists Theoretical physicists Space scientists 1949 births Living people 21st-century women physicists