Associate Professor
Weichao received a Ph.D. in space physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011. Then she worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a postdoc research associate from 2012 to 2015. Her research interests in space plasma physics are focused in the quantitative analysis and numerical modeling of energetic particles in space. She has developed and implemented various physics-based models to simulate the dynamics of relativistic particles in the Earth's radiation belts. Earth's radiation belts, also known as the Van Allen Radiation Belts, have important space weather applications since they present a hazardous radiative environment for spacecraft operating within. Weichao's research emphasis has been on the physical quantification of the source, loss, and transport rates of radiation belt particles, which directly contributes to the principal goal of the $686 million NASA Van Allen Probes Mission that was launched in August 2012.