Dr. Louis J. Lanzerotti

Biography

Louis J. Lanzerotti was born and grew up in Carlinville, Illinois. After serving 2 years as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and at Bell Laboratories, he joined the technical staff of ATT Bell Laboratories in 1967. He retired in 2002 and remained a consultant to Alcatel-Lucent through 2008. In 2002, he was appointed a Distinguished Research Professor of Physics in the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey. He has also served as an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at the University of Florida and as a Regents' Lecturer at UCLA.

His principal research interests have included space plasmas, geophysics, and engineering problems related to the impacts of atmospheric and space processes and the space environment on space and terrestrial technologies. Much of his research has involved close collaborations with telecommunications service providers on commercial satellite and long-haul (principally transoceanic) cables. His research has also involved geomagnetism, solid earth geophysics, and some oceanography. This research has been applied to design and operations of systems associated with spacecraft and cable operations.

Lanzerotti has conducted geophysical research in the Antarctic and the Arctic since the 1970s, directed largely toward understanding of Earth's upper atmosphere and space environments. He has co-authored one book, co-edited four books, and is an author of more than 500 refereed engineering and science papers. He is founding editor for Space Weather, The International Journal of Research and Applications, published by the American Geophysical Union. He has seven patents issued or filed.

He has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on several United States NASA interplanetary and planetary missions including IMP, Voyager, Ulysses, Galileo, and Cassini. Currently, he is a principal investigator on the NASA Radiation Belts Storm Probes mission scheduled for a May 2012 launch.

Lanzerotti has also served as a member or chair of numerous committees of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies. In the NRC he most recently served as chair of the Committee to Assess the Safety and Security of Spent Nuclear Fuel, and as chair of the Committee on Assessment of Options for Extending the Life of the Hubble Space Telescope. His past NRC responsibilities include chair, Space Studies Board; chair, Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board; and chair, Decadal Survey of Solar and Space Physics. He served on the Vice President's Space Policy Advisory Board, 1990-1992.

He has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering and of the International Academy of Astronautics. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is the recipient of two NASA Distinguished Public Service Medals, the NASA Distinguished Scientific Achievement Medal, the COSPAR William Nordberg Medal, and the Antarctic Service Medal of the United States. Minor Planet 5504 Lanzerotti recognizes his space and planetary research, and Mount Lanzerotti (74.50° S, 70.33° W) recognizes his research in the Antarctic.

In the 1980s, Lanzerotti was elected to three consecutive 3-year terms on his local (Harding Township, New Jersey) school board, and served as chair of the Curriculum Committee (8 years) and vice president (5 years). He has served since 1993 as a member of the Township's governing body (Township Committee), and has served as the Township's Mayor in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

He was appointed to the National Science Board in 2004 and chairs the Subcommittee on Science and Engineering Indicators.

May 2009