Robert F Pfaff

After completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1985, Dr. Robert Pfaff joined the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, where he is a Space Scientist in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere-Mesosphere Physics Laboratory in the Heliophysics Division.  With 40 years of experience working with experimental research at NASA/GSFC, Dr. Pfaff leads a team involved in all aspects of DC/AC electric field double probe instruments, including their design and fabrication as well as advanced scientific analysis.  The main focus of his research includes DC electric fields, magnetic fields, and plasma waves.

Dr. Pfaff served as the Principal Investigator of the Vector Electric Field Investigation (VEFI) on the C/NOFS Air Force satellite, which was launched in 2008 and operated successfully for 7.5 years prior to re-entry.  This investigation included a vector DC and AC electric field detector, fluxgate magnetometer, Langmuir probe, lightning detector (developed with the University of Washington), and burst memory.  Dr. Pfaff has participated as a co-investigator on the DC electric field teams for the San Marco and DEMETER ionosphere satellites, as well as for the Polar, Cluster, FAST, and RBSP (plasma wave team) magnetosphere satellites.  

Within NASA’s sounding rocket program, Dr. Pfaff has provided electric field, magnetic field, and plasma density measurements for over 60 rocket missions to date.  A large fraction of these missions investigated the DC electric field, plasma density, and current systems in the earth’s lower ionosphere at high, middle, and low latitudes including the equatorial and auroral electrojets.  All of the hardware has been delivered on time and on budget and all experiments have worked exceptionally well.

Dr. Pfaff has served as Project Scientist for NASA’s FAST satellite from 1990-2010, Project Scientist for the NASA Sounding Rocket program since 1994, and NASA Project Scientist for the Air Force C/NOFS satellite since 2003.  As Study Scientist, Dr. Pfaff led the Ionospheric Mappers planning for NASA’s Living with a Star (LWS) program, and served on the Geospace Electrodynamics Connections Definition team, the LWS Geospace Mission Definition Team, and the Geospace Dynamics Constellation Science and Technology Definition Team.  He also served on the Panel on Atmosphere-Ionosphere-Magnetosphere Interactions for the National Research Council Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space Physics, 2010-2011.

Dr. Pfaff has been a frequent invited speaker at international scientific conferences and co-convened a Chapman Conference on “Space Plasma Measurement Techniques” in 1995 where he was the lead editor of a two-volume AGU monograph.  He has published over 175 articles in the refereed literature including a comprehensive book chapter on in situ measurement techniques as well as an extensive review article on the ionosphere for Space Science Reviews.  He delivered the Nicolet Lecture at the Fall, 2022 AGU Meeting on ionospheric electric field research.

Since coming to NASA, Dr. Pfaff has received numerous awards and medals, including:

--  Robert H. Goddard Award of Merit, 2019

--  Robert H. Goddard Award for Exceptional Achievement in Science in 2008

--  NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2007 and in 2014

--  NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 1996.