Colloquium 2007-02-14

Speaker:

Syun-Ichi Akasofu

Title:

The Aurora

Host:

Stanley Pau

Abstract:

Aurora research has a long history of fascinating controversies.  However, my talk will focus on the progress of auroral science after the International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957-58), in particular how it has led to the development of a new field, space physics, including interplanetary physics, magnetospheric physics, and physics of the heliosphere.  We are also working with solar physicists, because the sun is the ultimate energy source of the aurora.

 Taking this special opportunity, I would like to propose search for life on extra-solar system planets, using oxygen emissions, since free oxygen in their atmosphere is very likely to be released from plants.

 (I am greatly honored to be a co-author (with S. Chapman and A. B Meinel) of the article entitled, “The Aurora” in Handbuch der Physik (Vol. XLIX/1) published in 1966 (158 pp), although I have not had an opportunity to meet Dr. Meinel.)

Bio:

Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu is a professor of physics and director emeritus of the University of Alaska.  He was the director of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks since its establishment in 1999 until his retirement in 2007.  Prior to that, he was director of the UAF’s Geophysical Institute for 13 years from 1986 to 1999.  He helped establish the institute as a key research center in the Arctic, and played a critical role in the genesis of the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the modernization of the Poker Flat Research Range.

Akasofu came from Japan to the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1958 as a graduate student to study the aurora under the guidance of Sydney Chapman, receiving his PhD in 1961.  He has been a professor of geophysics since 1964.  Akasofu has written more than 550 professional journal articles, and authored or co-authored 10 books.   Akasofu is an expert on the aurora borealis and the associated physics. His paper on the auroral substorm in 1964 is still cited often.  He initiated a study of space weather forecasting with K. Hakamada well before this issue became crucial.  The method they developed was refined by G. Fry and became the basis for the famous HAF model.

In 1976, the Royal Astronomy Society of London presented Akasofu with its Chapman Medal.  In 1980, UAF named Akasofu a Distinguished Alumnus.  In 1981 and again in 2002, he earned mention as one of the “1000 Most Cited Scientists.”  In 1985, Dr. Akasofu became the first recipient of the Chapman Chair Professorship at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; and in 1987, the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges named him as one of its  “Centennial Alumni.”  He has also been honored with the Japan Academy of Sciences Award, and the John Adams Fleming Award of the American Geophysical Union.

In addition, he has received awards of appreciation for his efforts in support of international science activities from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1993 and from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Japan in 1996.  He was also the recipient of the University of Alaska Edith R. Bullock Prize for Excellence in 1997, and was named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1977, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2001.  He received the 1999 Alaskan of the Year Denali Award, and the 2003 Aurora Award from the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors’ Bureau. Also in 2003, the Emperor of Japan bestowed on him the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star.

Upon his retirement in 2007, the University of Alaska Board of Regents officially named the building that houses the International Arctic Research Center the “Syun-Ichi Akasofu Building” in recognition of “ his tireless vision and dedicated service to the university, the state, and country in advancing arctic science.”