From Spacecraft Data to Deep Space Discovery

Some careers are straightforward, others are a roller coaster of choices, failures, and successes. Sometimes we ask ourselves if we are made for a specific position, if it suits us, or if it will be fitting our curriculum. However, surprises are always around the corner and your career might take a shift turn that you have not even thought about some years earlier.

More about the Space Café event series

Dr. Rona Oran is a computational scientist working at the forefront of plasma physics, space exploration, and scientific computing. In this Space Café talk, she will share how her work on NASA’s Psyche mission, solar wind modeling, and magnetic signals is helping scientists better understand planetary environments, while highlighting career opportunities for students interested in scientific computing, software engineering, and AI.

Dr. Rona Oran (MIT) is a computational scientist working at the intersection of plasma physics, space exploration, and scientific computing. Her career has spanned spacecraft engineering, space weather modeling, planetary magnetism, and asteroid exploration, with a focus on developing high-performance, data-driven models of the solar wind and its interaction with planetary environments.

As the Magnetometry Investigation Scientist on NASA’s Psyche mission, she designed and implemented a mission-grade data pipeline to process downlinked spacecraft data and developed analysis algorithms to detect magnetic signals from the asteroid 16 Psyche. These methods directly informed the design and planning of science operations for the mission, which is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in 2029.

Her work also includes the development of multi-physics solar wind prediction models used by national space weather centers, as well as current efforts to build AI-driven approaches for forecasting solar wind conditions in support of the Psyche mission. She also leads a team of researchers studying how asteroid impacts on the Moon may have altered its magnetization.

In this Space Café talk, she will share her interdisciplinary career path, discuss how computational methods enable discovery in space science, and highlight opportunities for students interested in scientific computing, software engineering, and AI in research and beyond.

Please use the registration form at the bottom of the following event page: https://www.space.uzh.ch/en/events/latest-events/space_cafe_rona_oran.html