Dr. Arik Posner

Dr. Arik Posner is a program scientist in the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Posner’s current portfolio includes the Parker Solar Probe, SunRISE (Sun Radio Interferometer Space Array), and IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) missions, and he is responsible for the real-time downlink network I-ALiRT for the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP).

Posner led the Heliophysics Research and Analysis Program from 2012 to 2017. He has authored or co-authored more than 75 scientific publications in peer-reviewed literature. His work led to the 2013 discovery and naming of the Hohmann-Parker effect, and the development of RAD (Radiation Assessment Detector), an advanced-capability radiation sensor on the Curiosity rover that has recorded solar and cosmic rays on the surface of Mars since 2012. A version of RAD is also installed as a radiation detector aboard the International Space Station (ISS-RAD). Posner also developed the REleASE (Relativistic Electron Alert System for Exploration) forecasting model that aims at protecting astronauts from harmful effects of solar particle event radiation.

Dr. Posner received a diploma in physics from Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany, and doctorate degree in natural sciences from the Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Germany. He conducted research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio before joining the NASA in 2006.

Posner can frequently be spotted during clear nights offering neighbors sidewalk views at various objects in the sky through his Dobsonian telescope.