Hello Denise For many years I taught dance part time. I stopped doing that a few years back when I went back to school. Dawn

Hi Denise,

Being a space plasma physicist is my main profession. I don't have another job or need to have two jobs. I make enough money to pay my bills just being a scientist.

However, the things that I do at work are always changing. For the last few years, I have been working at the University of Iowa on data from a satellite called Cluster. At first my work with Cluster data focused on the solar wind, but I have recently started studying radio waves called chorus that may play an important role in the formation of the Van Allen radiation belts. This fall, I am also helping test particle detectors for a sounding rocket, in addition to my work on Cluster data.I think that this is pretty typical for a lot of scientists. We start out studying one thing, then our research focus gradually changes depending on the data sets and opportunities available.

Kris

DO like being in the space