Los Alamos space scientist named American Geophysical Union Fellow

Vania Jordanova joins prestigious group of AGU Fellows

October 11, 2021

Vania Jordanova
Vania Jordanova was named fellow by the American Geophysical Union.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 11, 2021-Vania Jordanova, of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Space Science and Applications group, was named fellow by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Jordanova is among 59 new fellows this year who will be honored at the AGU Fall Meeting. Since 1962, AGU has elected fewer than 0.1 percent of its members to join this prestigious group of individuals.

“Vania’s work has played a pivotal role in the development of techniques to predict space weather and protect valuable space assets from damaging solar storms," said Nancy Jo Nicholas, associate Laboratory director for Global Security. “I appreciate her technical leadership and congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition.”

Jordanova specializes in theoretical, numerical, and observational studies of the Earth's magnetosphere and geomagnetic storm dynamics. She is the principal investigator on Space Hazards Induced near Earth by Large Dynamic Storms (SHIELDS) project, which predicts space weather hazards. She is also the co- investigator of “Impacts of Extreme Space Weather Events on Power Grid Infrastructure: Physics-Based Modelling of Geomagnetically-Induced Currents During Carrington-Class Geomagnetic Storms.” The SHIELDS project won an R&D 100 award in 2017.

For nearly 15 years, Jordanova worked on two instrument teams for NASA’s Van Allen Probe missions, which studied plasma structures and dynamic processes in the Earth's radiation belts. She chairs the National Science Foundation (NSF) Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) Steering Committee. The purpose of the NSF GEM program is to support basic research into the dynamical and structural properties of geospace, leading to the construction of a global geospace model with predictive capability.

Jordanova graduated with a master’s degree in physics from Sofia University in Bulgaria, and earned her doctoral degree in atmospheric and space sciences from the University of Michigan. She joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2006.

About Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is managed by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), and the Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

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