Magnetic Reconnection / Astrophysics and Space Science Library Bd.427 (PDF)

Walter
Gonzalez received his PhD in Physics from the
University of California-Berkeley in 1973 and has worked at Stanford university,
Caltech- JPL/NASA, Michigan university and at
several other universities abroad, alternating with his research position in Brazil.
He is head of the Heliospheric and Magnetospheric Division of the National
Institute for Space Research of Brazil, INPE . Together with Prof F S Mozer
from UC Berkeley Prof Gonzalez published in 1974 the first quantitative model
for Magnetic Reconnection at the Earth's magnetopause, thus introducing the
concepts of "component reconnection", "tilted reconnection
line", "reconnection potential" and "power transfer from
the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere due to reconnection". He also
published in 1994 the paper "What is a Geomagnetic Storm?", which has
been extensively cited. He is author of more than 200 articles, 15 book chapters
and 4 books in space plasma physics. He is the first president-elect of the
Latin-American Space Geophysics association, a Distinguished Visiting scientist
of NASA and is Member of the Brazilian and Peruvian Academy of Sciences.



Eugene
Parker received his
B.S. degree in physics from Michigan State University in 1948 and Ph.D. from
Caltech in 1951. In
the mid-1950s he developed the theory on the supersonic solar wind and
predicted the Parker-spiral shape of the solar/interplanetary magnetic field in
the outer solar system. Professor Parker was elected to the National Academy of
Sciences in 1967. He has been at the University
of Chicago since 1955,
where he has held positions in the physics department, the astronomy and
astrophysics department and the Enrico Fermi Institute. He is a leading
authority on the solar wind, solar dynamo, space plasmas and cosmic magnetic
fields. He is author of many articles and several books on cosmic and space
plasmas and is still engaged in active research at the University of Chicago.