Richard Mewaldt

California Institute of Technology
Senior Research Associate
Richard Mewaldt Image

Richard Mewaldt graduated from Lawrence University in 1965 and received a Ph.D. in Physics from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. Since that time he has been employed in the Space Radiation Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology, where he is presently a Senior Research Associate in Physics. His research interests center on spacecraft and balloon-borne measurements of energetic nuclei and electrons accelerated in solar energetic particle events, galactic cosmic rays, the heliosphere, and in the Earth's magnetosphere. This work has focused on studies of elemental and isotopic composition; on the implications of these measurements for energetic particle origin, acceleration, and transport; on solar particle and cosmic-ray impacts on space weather; and on the development of high-resolution instrumentation to extend these measurements. He has been a co-investigator on the NASA missions IMP-7, IMP-8, ISEE-3 (ICE), SAMPEX, and a Guest Investigator on HEAO-3. He is and is currently a co-investigator on STEREO, and the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), where he is the Mission Scientist, and on Solar Orbiter. He has also been a co-investigator on six balloon-borne instruments that measured cosmic-ray elemental and isotopic composition and cosmic-ray antiprotons.