|
 Seventeen
years after coming to Florida Tech as
a visiting professor, Dr. Hamid Rassoul
regards with justifiable pride the team
he has built in the space sciences. As
program chair and professor of space
sciences, and the director of the Geospace
Physics Lab, Rassoul has spent the better
part of two decades championing research
into the inner and outer workings of
Earth’s solar system.
Rassoul arrived
at Florida Tech fresh from a stint
working for NASA at the
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Ala. At the time, Rassoul was driven
by dreams of space travel. He was working
for NASA on the creation of a spectrometer
that would ultimately make the trip
for him.
After his time at NASA, Rassoul
was brought to Florida Tech as a visiting
professor
by Dr. James Patterson. He began
immediately to create his own role at
the university.
From its humble beginnings
in 1988 as a one-man show, the space
physics
group
at Florida Tech is now one of the
nation’s
best. Faculty members include Dr.
Joseph Dwyer, Dr. Ming Zhang, Dr.
Ramon Lopez,
Dr. Niescja Turner and retired astronaut
Dr. Sam Durrance. These professors
are joined by five post-doctoral
fellows
and research scientists.
“This group is a dream team for
me,” said
Rassoul. “They all represent
Florida Tech extremely well and
have made a real
difference for our students.
We’ve
been blessed by great administrative
support from [Physics Department
Head] Laszlo Baksay, our Associate
Provost
Robert Sullivan, and Provost
Dwayne McCay. To me, my group
is my identity. I’m
always putting them first.”
The
research by the space sciences
group differentiates it from
its counterpart in Florida
Tech’s
excellent astronomy program.
“All of us are doing research
on different aspects of space within
our own solar
system,” he said. “Some,
like Ming, research interstellar
weather, while others, like
Joe, study weather
within planetary atmospheres,
including our own.”
In
fact, it’s planetary
atmospheres that spark the
most interest for Rassoul,
whose research focus has
always been
close to home.
“My main research interest is
planetary atmospherics. Not just Earth’s
atmosphere, but the atmospheres
of all planets,” he said. “I’m
interested in how they
evolved and how they change as a result
of solar activity.”
This research
is a far cry from his interest
in philosophy
as
an undergraduate
student
in Iran. As Rassoul
got older, his focus shifted
from the
abstract to
the concrete,
and, as a result, his
academic work also
changed.
“The kind of physics
I do now is very hands-on,
very experimental.
I do applied
physics,” he
said. “If I
was a little younger,
I’d get an
engineering degree.
I love building things.” As
for the future, Rassoul
has given up
his dreams
of space
travel. But,
he believes he can
still make an impact
on another
world.
“My ultimate dream is to send
an instrument to another planet or our
moon with the
Florida Tech logo.
I plan to retire here. This is my school.
This is my dream.”
Jay Wilson
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