Cool Scientists
Dr. Peter Wasilewski
Name: Peter Wasilewski
Born:
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics
Cool Science: Astrophysicist
Who I Am:
Besides being a NASA scientist I am a Doctorate of Sciences recipient from the University of Tokyo. Upon graduating from George Washington University, I turned down a tryout for the Baltimore Colts professional football team to participate in an expedition to the world's largest piece of ice - Antarctica. I fell in love with the frozen continent and has since gone back on 6 different expeditions over 25 years. During an early exploration near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula Peter trod where no human had set foot before and there stands an ancient volcano that bears my name "Mount Wasilewski." Later expeditions would have me collecting meteorites on the pale blue ice near the Trans-Antarctic mountains. I would sample this ice and learn about the "color" and shape of the ice crystals that could be seen in thin sections of the ice. This is what introduced me to my passion of making Frizions.
My Cool Research:
As a astrophysicist at NASA I have researched magnetic properties of meteorites, Moon rocks and Earth rocks and for more than 25 years, I have been studying snow and ice, making six Antarctic expeditions and developing a winter camp in Lake Placid, New York, former home to the winter Olympics of 1932 and 1980. This camp is called 'The History of Winter,' and is in part funded by a NASA education program and teaches science teachers about snow and ice. In February 2006, as part of the upcoming 'International Polar Year' celebration of 2007-2008 we launched 'The Global Snowflake Network.' Students around the world will collect snow flakes during snow falls, identify the flakes and record it to our database. I Hope many of the GoNorth! students will take part in this as well!
My Cool Publications: (Selected)
"Magnetic Petrology of Arc Xenoliths from Japan and Aleutian
Islands", R. D. Warner, P. J. Wasilewski, J. Geophys. Res. 1997, 102, 20,225-20,243.
"The Role of Magnetic Contamination in Meteorites", P. J. Wasilewski, and T. L. Dickinson, submitted to Meteoritics and Planetary Science, July 1997.
"Shock Magnetism in FIne Particle Iron", T. L. Dickinson, and P. J.
Wasilewski, submitted to Meteoritics and Planetary Science, July 1997.
My Cool Awards:
Honors, Awards, and Projects:
Editor, Tectonophysics Special Issue - Magnetic Anomalies: Land andSea, 1991.
Invited Participant, NATO Advanced Study institute - Continental Crustal Sections, 1989.
Invited Lecturer, Oxide minerals short course - Sponsored by
American Mineralogical Society and American Geophysical Union, 1991.
Invited Participant, National Geomagnetic Initiative,
Lithosphere Magnetic Fields Group, 1992.
Keynote Lecture, Maryland Association of Science Teachers
(MAST), November 1991.
Invited Speaker, 150th Anniversary of Indian Geomagnetic
Institute, Bombay India, November 1991 (Declined because I was in Antarctica).
Co Investigator, Mars Observer magnetometer team.
Collaboration, Peshawar University and University of Utah on
Karakorum highway and Swat River transacts, 1988.
Antarctic Traverse 1961-62; Ellsworth Nunatak Party 1965-66;
25th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition 1983-84;
Antarctic Search for Meteorites, 1987-88, 1990-91, 1991-92;
NASA Community Service Award, 1992.
