Mario H. Acuna

Goddard Senior Fellow

Mario H. Acuna was born in Cordoba, Argentina in 1940 where he received his undergraduate degree in humanities and economics from the University of Cordoba. He earned the MSEE degree from the University of Tucum‡n, Argentina in 1967 and the PhD. degree in Space Physics from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC in 1974.
From 1963 until 1967 he worked for the Electrical Engineering Department and Ionospheric Research Laboratory of the University of Tucum‡n as well as the Argentine National Space Research Commission (CNIE) as a Teaching and Research Associate. These activities included several cooperative sounding rockets programs with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center involving US and South American scientists as well as X-ray research with high altitude balloons and meteorological satellite tracking stations.

In 1967 he moved permanently to the US joining the Fairchild-Hiller Corporation, Germantown, MD, to provide engineering and scientific support to NASA. In 1968 he became Head of the Electronic Systems Division (TSD). Since 1969 he has been associated with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD where his interests have centered around aerospace instrumentation and experimental investigations of the magnetic fields and plasmas in the solar system. As Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, Instrument Scientist and Project Scientist he has played a crucial part in many NASA missions, including Explorers 47 & 50, ISEE3, Mariner 10, Pioneer 11, Voyagers 1 & 2, MAGSAT, Project Firewheel (Germany, Canada, US & UK), Viking (Sweden), AMPTE (Germany, US, UK), ISPM (NASA/ESA, currently ULYSSES), the GIOTTO mission to Comet Halley, and numerous other programs. In 1986 he was selected as Principal Investigator for the Mars Observer Magnetic Field Investigation now replaced by the Mars Global Surveyor Mission which arrived at Mars in September 1997 and is currently in orbit around the red planet making fundamental discoveries about Mars' magnetism. His research laboratory is recognized throughout the world as the leader in the development of instrumentation for the measurement of geophysical magnetic fields as well as plasmas, electromagnetic waves, gamma and X-rays. The laboratory has also supported since 1984 the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program of the US Air Force with the provision of advanced magnetic field instrumentation. In addition to these responsibilities Dr. Acuna served as US Project Scientist (and Science Manager) for the International Solar Terrestrial Physics Program, a $2.4B coordinated research effort by Japan, Europe, Russia and the US involving more than 1000 investigators and the launch of at least seven spacecraft in the middle 90's, and Project Scientist for the SAC cooperative program with Argentina, Brazil, Italy and Denmark. He is also the Team Leader for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Magnetic Field Experiment which landed on 433 Eros in February 2001, was the Lead Co-Investigator in the Magnetic Field and Electron Reflectometer experiment for the Lunar Prospector Mission, Instrument Scientist for the ACE spacecraft Magnetic Field Experiment launched in August 1997 and now in orbit around the L1 libration point between the Earth and the Sun. He was selected by NASA as Co-Investigator in the Inner Magnetosphere Explorer Mission (IMEX), a University-class Small Explorer Mission, a collaboration with the Universities of Minnesota and Colorado and the Aerospace Corporation and is currentlya Co-Investigator in the Messenger mission to Mercury and the twin-spacecraft STEREO mission.