*************************** ** THE GEM MESSENGER ** *************************** Volume 21, Number 1 January 20, 2011 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- John B. Sigwarth of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Died 13 December 2010 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Nicky Fox & Jim Slavin It is with deep regret and sadness that we announce the unexpected and tragic passing of Dr. John Sigwarth, a world expert in the physics of the Aurora Borealis at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. John died suddenly on December 13th, 2010 of an aortic aneurysm. He was 49. John was an incredibly respected and dedicated member of our community. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics by the University of Iowa in December 1989, for his fundamental research into small comets. His academic advisor was the internationally recognized space scientist, Prof. Louis A. Frank. After graduation, John accepted a Research Scientist post at the university where he remained doing research and teaching until 2004. During this time he led the development of the highly successful Visible Imaging System (VIS) for NASA's POLAR spacecraft (launched February 26, 1996). He was directly responsible for the analysis, manufacture and testing of the optical systems of the VIS and, later, the operations and scientific analysis of the auroral images. John joined Goddard Space Flight Center in 2004 where he continued as the Principal Investigator for the VIS instrument and was appointed Project Scientist for the Polar mission. He headed Goddard's Advanced Heliophysics Instrument Technology Program. Among many other accomplishments, he led the development of three new technology instruments for the FASTSAT mission that launched November 17, 2010. He was the Principal Investigator for one of these instruments - the Thermospheric Temperature Instrument (TTI) for advanced upper atmospheric research. Most recently, John was developing new advanced instrumentation to image the Earth's Thermosphere. John was known around Goddard as an extraordinarily talented individual who was valued both professionally and personally for his skill, commitment, and compassion. John's broad research interests focused on the conjugate nature of the northern and southern auroras, geomagnetic storms, and the composition of the thermosphere and its response to changing solar input. John was a frequent lecturer on the Earth's auroras and the rapidly evolving area of Space Weather. He loved to teach and mentor junior colleagues. He was the author of over 70 space instrumentation and research articles in scientific journals. John is survived by his wife, Dr. Nicola J. Fox, the Project Scientist for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, their two children, James (3) and Darcy (1), and his son Karl, who is an Officer with the US Marine Corps, currently serving in Afghanistan. John was a wonderful husband and an amazing father and his sudden loss is deeply felt by his entire family, friends, and colleagues at this time. John will be greatly missed. +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | To subscribe GEM Messengers, send an e-mail to | | | | with the following command in the body of your e-mail message: | | subscribe gem | | To remove yourself from the mailing list, the command is: | | unsubscribe gem | | | | To broadcast a message to the GEM community, please contact | | Peter Chi at | | | | Please use plain text as the format of your submission. | | | | GEM Messenger is also posted online via newsfeed at | | http://heliophysics.blogspot.com and | | http://www.facebook.com/heliophysics | | | | Back issues are available at ftp://igpp.ucla.edu/scratch/gem/ | | | | URL of GEM Home Page: http://aten.igpp.ucla.edu/gemwiki | | Workshop Information: http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gem/index.html | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+