Jan Sojka

Dr. Jan J. Sojka Jan rocking his usual getup

Born Neolithic era Occupation GAS Team Faculty Advisor USU Physics Dept. Head Professor Residence Logan UT

Dr. Jan J. Sojka is the beloved faculty advisor for the GAS team. He was born and educated through to high school in the south of Scotland. He attended Edinburgh University where he received his B.Sc. degree in Physics. His Ph.D. research was carried out at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), a research facility of the University College, London, UK. The dissertation research involved launching sounding rockets from Andoya, Norway, into the aurora to measure suprathermal auroral electron fluxes. During his MSSL 5-year stay, he also was part of a team that flew nine sounding rockets and used observations on the ESA GOES-I and GOES-II satellites. In 1978, he moved to Utah to join the Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences (CASS) and began his global ionospheric modeling research. At USU, his position ranged from Postdoctoral Fellow to currently the Head of the Department of Physics and Assistant Director for CASS. During the period 2010 through 2012, he served as President of the Space Physics and Aeronomy (SPA) section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Mentorship

As a Professor of Physics, Dr. Sojka teaches formal classes and mentors undergraduate as well as graduate students at Utah State University. For the entire period he has been at USU (over 20 years), he has been involved in mentoring interdisciplinary students in the GAS program.

Research

Jan J. Sojka currently carries out research in several parallel areas of ionospheric science. His primary contribution to the USU-CASS ionospheric modeling group led by Professor Robert W. Schunk is the interface between ionospheric observation and theory in which model simulations provide the tangible medium for comparison with measurements, hence, his leading role in extensive model-observation studies.