Lindsay Glesener

Lindsay Glesener
Contact
John T. Tate Hall Room 262 116 Church Street SeMinneapolis, MN 55455
Affiliations
Education
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2012
M.A., University of California, Berkeley, 2009
B.S., San Francisco State University, 2006
Professional Background
- Associate Professor 2021-present
- Assistant Professor, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Minnesota, 2015-2021
- Assistant Researcher, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 2015
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, 2013-2015
I am an astrophysicist examining the Sun. I concentrate on the Sun’s remarkable capabilities for accelerating particles. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections transform huge amounts of energy from magnetic fields into kinetic energy through processes that are not yet understood. We attempt to evaluate and explain these phenomena by examining the high-energy emission from flares, all the way from large eruptive flares down to small, prevalent, unresolved ones. My main investigative tools are ultraviolet and X-ray data. I also work on the development of new instruments for high-energy exploration of the Sun, with an emphasis on X-ray sensors. Before reaching the large spacecraft stage, developing instruments are tested on sounding rockets, balloons, and CubeSats - small satellites about the size of a shoebox. In collaboration with several other institutions, we are developing hard X-ray focusing telescopes for solar purposes via the FOXSI project, which has had three successful flights on suborbital sounding rockets from the White Sands Missile Range. We are also developing CubeSats to measure X-rays from the Sun and other astrophysical objects with high time precision. The capabilities of these and other new instruments will open a new door by which we can understand some of the most energetic phenomena in the solar system.
Honors and Awards
- University of Minnesota McKnight Land-grant Professorship, 2020
- National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, 2018
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science short-term postdoctoral fellow, December 2013-January 2014
- Royal Astronomical Society’s Tomkins Thesis Prize for Instrumentation, 2013
Advisees & Collaborators
Graduate Students:
- Yixian Zhang
- Reed Masek
- Marianne Peterson
- William Setterberg
Undergraduate Students:
I am the Physics/Astro mentor for the Small Satellite Research Laboratory
Postdocs:
- Kris Cooper
Former Researchers and Students
Former Postdocs:
- Subramania Athiray
- Sophie Musset
- Julie Vievering
Former Students:
- Julie Vievering (Physics PhD 2019)
- Trevor Knuth (Astrophysics PhD 2021)
- Jessie Duncan (Physics PhD 2022)