Dr. Lika Guhathakurta
Heliophysics Program Scientist
Dr. Madhulika “Lika” Guhathakurta is a heliophysicist and program scientist in the Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. Her work focuses on advancing heliophysics research and the use of artificial intelligence and data-driven approaches to accelerate scientific discovery about the Sun and its effects throughout the solar system.
Prior to joining NASA Headquarters in 1998, Dr. Guhathakurta conducted solar physics research and instrument development at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. During this period she served as project scientist for the SPARTAN-201 white-light coronagraph experiment, which flew on multiple Space Shuttle missions including the historic STS-95 mission that returned astronaut John Glenn to space.
For more than two decades, Dr. Guhathakurta has helped shape heliophysics as an integrated scientific discipline focused on understanding the Sun and its interactions with Earth and the solar system. She previously served as Lead Program Scientist for NASA’s Living With a Star Program, where she guided the development of missions including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Parker Solar Probe, STEREO, the Van Allen Probes, and the NASA–ESA Solar Orbiter collaboration.
She has also helped establish major research initiatives including the Living With a Star Targeted Research and Technology (LWS Science) program and Focused Science Teams, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to improve understanding and prediction of space weather.
Dr. Guhathakurta founded the Jack Eddy Fellowship and helped establish the Heliophysics Summer School in 2006, which has trained hundreds of early-career scientists and produced a four-volume graduate textbook series published by Cambridge University Press.
She received her Ph.D. in Solar Physics from the University of Denver and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.