Michael W. Liemohn

Associate Professor
PhD Advisor

Education:

Ph.D., M.S., Atmospheric and Space Science, University of Michigan, 1997

B.S., Physics and Math, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, 1992

Research:

Plasma transport in the ionosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth and other solar system bodies

Doctoral Students:

Raluca Ilie
Matthew Trantham
Roxanne Katus
Catherine Walker

I am the chair of the Graduate Admissions Committee for AOSS.  If you are a prospective PhD student, please feel free to email me (or Margaret Reid, margreid@umich.edu) with any questions about the program, funding opportunities, the University of Michigan, or living in Ann Arbor.

Specializations and Research Interests

• Energetic particle transport in the Earth's inner magnetosphere
• Kinetic theory and modeling
• Interactions between hot and cold plasma components
• Plasmaspheric dynamics and modeling
• Ring current dynamics and modeling
• Global magnetospheric dynamics and modeling
• Plasma wave excitation and wave-particle interactions

Honors, Awards and Accomplishments

• Member, College of Engineering Research Strategy Committee
• Awarded National Research Council Resident Research Associateship at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
• Awarded NASA Graduate Student Research Fellowship
• Outstanding Student Paper Award, American Geophysical Union
• Refereed papers for leading peer-reviewed journals in space science and proposals for NASA and NSF
• Dissertation was first self-consistent calculation of ineterhemispheric photoelectron transport through plasmasphere, from ionospheric sources to scattering into the geomagnetic trap.
• With Dr. George Khazanov and others, developed method to solve the Vlasov equation in an arbitrary electric potential structure
• With Dr. Janet Kozyra and others, conclusively showed that the initial decay rate of the stormtime ring current is dominated by dayside outflow
• With Dr. Khazanov and others, developed first local time dependent global model of relativistic electron transport, for uses such as simulating artificial beam injections and the Van Allen radiation belts

Professional Service

• Chair, NSF GEM Steering Committee, 2009 - present
• NASA Living With a Star TR&T Steering Committee, 2007 - present
• Chair, NASA Geospace Management and Operations Working Group (G-MOWG), 2005 - 2007
• Research Area Coordinator, NSF GEM Program, Inner magnetoshpere/Storms Campaign, 2003 - present
• Chair, AOSS Graduate Program committee, 2009 - present
• Chair, Graduate student recruitment committee, AOSS Department, 2006 - present

Publications

Please see my CV (link above) or my detailed work website (also a link above) for more information about my publications and research activities.