Ashley Greeley is a research scientist in the Energetic Particles Lab (code 672). In this role, she splits her time between research topics and instrument development. She is the instrument lead on several CubeSat missions analyzing electrons, protons, and ions in low Earth orbit (LEO), interplanetary space, and lunar orbit. She develops future missions using Geant4, a Monte Carlo simulation package. Her current research interests include electron pitch angle distributions in the Earth's radiation belts, wave-particle interactions, and particle precipitation into the atmosphere.
She graduated with distinction from Duke University in 2011 with a B.S. in physics and minor in theater studies. She studied neutrinos with the Super Kamiokande collaboration under the guidance of K. Scholberg and C. Walter. She worked for a year at the Duke Psychiatry Department running clinical trials for schizophrenia and fibromyalgia research. She then came to Goddard as an intern, where she has worked in various capacities since.
During her internship, she worked on the design of a new CubeSat, the Miniaturized Electron pRoton Telescope (MERiT) instrument o the Compact Radiation bElt Explorer (CeREs). In the year after, she stayed on the project as a data scientist before applying to grad school at the nearby Catholic University of America. During this time, she worked on CeREs from its initial design through launch in 2018. She also worked on a MERiT design for the CubeSat to Study Solar Particles (CuSP) mission, launched in 2022. She has started work on a particle instrument for the Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC).
Ashley graduated with her PhD at the end of 2019, and started a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) fellowship. In 2021, she started a research scientist position at the Catholic University of America working at Goddard. In 2022, she started a research scientist civil servant position at Goddard.