Astronomer Harlan Spence started his role as the new director of UNH’s Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space (EOS) effective Jan. 1.
Spence comes to UNH from Boston University, where he was among the faculty of the astronomy department and a member of the Center for Space Physics. He had previously been chair of the Department of Astronomy. At UNH, he has an appointment in the Department of Physics.
“I certainly have deep interest in all of the things that EOS does, in terms of the research,” Spence said during an interview in his Morse Hall office late last week. “In terms of what I do in terms of my own research, it’s the ‘S’ part.”
Part of what attracted him to Durham was the Institute’s reputation.
“EOS…beyond Durham, and maybe beyond New Hampshire, has a stature and recognition on the national and international landscape that maybe isn’t fully appreciated close by, in the neighborhood of UNH,” said Spence. “It wasn’t like I had to discover what was going on at UNH. It was: ‘I want to be a part of that. What a great opportunity.’”
He believes that the institute’s research plays a vital role in the nation and society as a whole.
“EOS has excellent people doing important research in areas of interests that are relevant to the needs of society, and that are high stature in terms of national priorities in research in the geosciences and space sciences,” he said.
It does it by submitting proposals for grant money from a number of federally-supported organizations, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Science Foundation (NSF).
“The funding agencies… know that when there are priority research interests that will be funded by the U.S. Federal Government there is a place that… will be submitting competitive and interesting proposals to do research that have important outcomes for the agency and the nation,” he said.
And Spence knows something about research proposals himself. He brings with him to UNH a number of research projects that he plays a role in, which combine to total more than $55 million in funding. It’s not a number that he advertises though, maybe because he has a different definition of what a big project is.
“To me, a big project isn’t that it has a lot of money,” he said. “It’s asking big important questions. Sometimes that can happen with a smaller thing like the FIREBIRD [Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics] project, which is ‘only’ a million dollars, as compared to big projects which can be closer to a billion.”
But Spence plays a role in a number of high-budget projects, such as the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) project, for which he is the principal investigator. The project focuses on the radiation environment at the moon relative to future human or robotic exploration.
“It [the radiation in space] can lead to damaged DNA, increased occurrence of cataracts and such,” he said. “This wasn’t an issue in the Apollo era, because you’re up there for two weeks and you’re back. But if you’re up there for six months, the intensity and the quantity of the radiation becomes problematic.”
The CRaTER instrument is currently in orbit around the moon, an idea that Spece said never gets old.
“Every night I look up and I say the moon and think “That thing I’ve touched is there,” he said.
Another of Spence’s major projects is intended to increase the safety of space exploration by increasing our understanding of energetic electrons and ions in Earth’s space environment. Just make sure you use the right name for it.
“The mission is called Radiation Belt Storm Probes,” he said. “The instrument suite that I’m delivering is called Energetic Particle, Composition and Thermal Plasma. So that’s ECT. That’s our acronym. But you can’t just say ECT, you have to say RBSP ECT. It’s like respect.”
Spence compares his role as EOS director to that of a college dean and, like them, he reports directly to the provost. There are some differences, obviously, because the colleges are academic units for the teaching mission of the university, whereas EOS is fundamentally a research entity on campus. However, he argues that things aren’t that simple.
“One of the things I feel strongly about and think is really important is that it’s easy to fall into the trap that there’s research and that there’s teaching,” said Spence. “There’s a whole spectrum between them.”
He noted that laboratory sessions held in conjunction with lecture classes for students in the sciences are a sort of research component, and that researchers are constantly learning from their research, which they use to teach others.
“I think one of my goals is to make it clear to the university that EOS is not simply just a research center, but that during the course of research it serves the community in terms of an education experience,” he said.
Spence’s refers to goal for EOS as a “shared vision,” developed with input from the many people and departments that have a stake in it.
“My vision is one of forward progress in directions that are sensible with where we are now, taking advantage of the incredible strengths of this place,” he said. “A lot of that vision almost certainly will be capitalizing on all the great things happening now. But also to be looking for those new opportunities and chances to be doing the science that is intellectually exciting and, in many cases, is of national priority and significant importance to the nation and society.”
Spence is aware that that may strike some as very general.
“That’s my vision,” he said. “If you come visit me in six months, it might be a little more focused.”
But there’s one thing about Spence that you probably wouldn’t suspect from his credentials.
“I actually started my undergraduate career as a musician,” he said. “I was a performance major- trumpet… I still perform fairly regularly, playing trumpet. I now sing too…In fact, my whole family sings. We performed together at Disney Land a few Christmases ago.”
Follow Thomas Gounley on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tgounley
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