Sigrid Close

Sigrid Close is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, where she heads up the Space Environment and Satellite Systems laboratory.  Prior to joining Stanford, she was a project leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a technical staff member at M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory where she led a program to characterize meteoroids and meteoroid plasma using high-power radars.  Her honors and awards include the following:  Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), NSF CAREER Award, DOE CAREER Award, Award of Excellence from the United States of America for Exceptional Efforts in Meteoroid Plasma Analysis and Modeling, Hellman Scholar, featured in IEEE Spectrum April 2010, featured on the cover of IEEE Spectrum in February 2008, Joe D. Marshall Award given by AFTAC for Outstanding Technical Briefing, M.I.T. Lincoln Scholar from 2000 through 2004, and first place in the student paper competition at the International Union of Radio Science in 2002.  She was a panel member of the National Research Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Space Studies Board: Near Earth Objects Mitigation in 2009, and the National Research Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Space Studies Board: Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris in 2011.  She was also a co-host of the TV program “Known Universe” in 2011, which aired on the National Geographic Channel, and has been featured as a guest expert on PBS and the Weather Channel.