Team - Philip Scherrer

What do you do as SDO's HMI Principal Investigator?

I try to coordinate the efforts of a diverse group of scientists and engineers to develop the best science investigation we can with the resources available.

What do you like most about your job?

What I like most is the anticipation that we may discover something interesting and useful about the inner workings of the sun.

When did you decide you wanted to work for NASA?

I was in the 6th grade when Sputnik was launched, and the US followed shortly with our first satellites. That, plus a movie showing a scientist launching a balloon to measure cosmic rays, caught my interest. When I was about to start college, a friend gave me a set of pictures taken by the Ranger mission that took pictures as it crashed into the Moon. But then I got sidetracked with physics and never have worked for NASA. I now work at Stanford and am pleased that NASA is supporting our work.

Where did you go to school and what degrees did you get?

I went through high school in southern California then attended the University of California, Berkeley, to study Physics for both my B.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

What was the first job you ever had?

Besides mowing the neighbors' lawns and delivering the local newspaper when younger, my first adult job was a summer position working at the Union Oil Research Lab filling in for lab technicians on vacation.

How did you come to actually work for NASA?

Never have worked for NASA, but my PhD research involved analysis of data from the Explorer 33 and 35 missions to study the interplanetary magnetic field. Then, 15 years later I led the SOHO Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) investigation. MDI showed that we could actually study the interior of the sun but needed a better instrument. SDO/HMI followed after 6 years of further study. Now, another 6 years, and we are about ready to put SDO in the sky and make the HMI and AIA and EVE instruments useful.

How long have you been working for NASA?

I have been using data obtained by NASA missions for more than 40 years. I am presently a Professor of Physics at Stanford University.

HMI Principal Investigator