| by Annette Trinity-Stevens
A Montana State University-Bozeman physicist who studies the sun received one of the nation's
top honors for young scientists during an Oct. 24 ceremony at the White House.
Dana Longcope, an assistant professor of physics, is one of 59 scientists nationwide to receive
this year¹s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Created by President Clinton in 1996, the awards are "the highest honor bestowed by the U.S.
government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers,"
according to a White House press release.
Longcope, 36, was nominated through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, one of
eight federal agencies involved in the recognition program. Each agency has its own nomination
and screening process for the awards.
For the last four years, Longcope and two other scientists have been studying the sun's magnetic
fields with NASA funds.
"This is an incredible honor," said NASA chief scientist Kathie Olsen, adding that her agency
is giving just six early career awards this year.
The MSU physics department "is in a state of jubilation," said department head John Hermanson.
He knew Longcope was nominated some time ago by MSU research professor Richard Canfield and had a
hard time keeping quiet about it.
"This is the highest honor a young scientist or engineer can receive from the federal government,"
Hermanson said. "Our students benefit enormously from the presence of so fine a scientist."
In Washington, D.C., Longcope gave a five-minute presentation on his research to senior NASA
officials and had his picture taken with NASA administrator Dan Goldin. From there, he and the
other winners met at the White House for the official ceremony.
Originally President Clinton was expected to hand out the awards, but recent events in the Middle
East kept him away, said Elizabeth Gregory, a spokesperson for the White House Office of Science
and Technology Policy. Instead, Clinton's science and technology director, Neal Lane, stood in
for the president.
The awards include up to $500,000 over five years to do additional research and "advance science
for important government missions," according to the White House.
Longcope has developed mathematical explanations for what solar scientists see happening in the
sun's magnetic fields. Working with Canfield, MSU mathematician Isaac Klapper and former MSU
research scientist Alex Pevtsov, Longcope modelled how magnetic fields, generated in a
so-called dynamo deep inside the star, float up to the surface as long buoyant tubes.
For some time, physicists were puzzled by why these magnetic fields, which underlie so much of
the sun's erratic behavior, twisted in unexpected ways during the two- to three-month journey
from the dynamo to the surface.
Longcope's mathematical theories not only explain what other scientists were observing through
satellite telescopes, they contribute to a growing understanding of the sun-earth connection.
Twisted magnetic fields give rise to solar flares and related bursts called coronal mass ejections,
which affect how satellites operate as well as power lines, cellular phones and related equipment
on earth.
A Massachusetts native, Longcope has a Ph.D. from Cornell University. Two years ago, he received
a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation. Before that,
he was a Miller Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley.
He came to MSU in 1996 because "this is the best place for studying the sun," Longcope said.
"[Loren] Acton and [Richard] Canfield are two of the best names in the field, plus there's a good
cadre of young, talented people doing post-doctoral work. You'd be hard pressed to find this
many people doing solar research at one university."
Currently Longcope teaches junior-level physics, including how to use computers to solve physics
problems and an upcoming class on electricity and magnetism.
Annette Trinity-Stevens is the MSU Research Editor.
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Issue 3 
