Dr. Michele Cash

Dr. Michele Cash is a Program Scientist in the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters. Her portfolio includes the Escape Plasma and Acceleration and Dynamics Explorer (ESCAPADE) mission that will utilize twin spacecraft to study the interaction between the solar wind and Mars’ magnetic environment. She also supports the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission that will map the boundary of our heliosphere and explore its interaction with the local interstellar medium.

Prior to joining NASA, Dr. Cash spent 12 years at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), where she led the research division and served as the technical lead for the operational Geospace model. In these roles, she spearheaded space weather research-to-operations (R2O) and operations-to-research (O2R) efforts, advancing our nation’s space weather forecasting capabilities.

Dr. Cash earned a B.S. in Physics from Stanford University, where she was a President’s Scholar. She received a Ph.D. in Space Physics with a certificate in Astrobiology from the University of Washington. Her research interests include planetary habitability, geomagnetic storms, and space weather. As a National Science Foundation (NSF) Astrobiology Research Fellow, Dr. Cash investigated the use of auroral signatures to determine the atmospheric composition of exoplanets. For her doctoral thesis, she examined the response of Earth’s magnetosphere to solar wind drivers and the associated space weather impacts.