Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sun
with Dr. Nour Rawafi

Over the past six years, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has traveled billions of miles through space, braving extreme conditions to come within just 4 million miles of the Sun’s surface. In December 2024, it achieved its closest approach yet, marking a historic milestone in solar exploration.

Join us at UC Berkeley for a special event featuring Dr. Nour Rawafi, Chief Scientist for the Parker Solar Probe mission and heliophysicist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. Rawafi will guide us through the groundbreaking mission—highlighting the probe’s daring journey, its innovative trajectory, and the latest discoveries from its unprecedented contact with the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

The event will begin with an introduction to NASA’s current science initiatives by Dr. Chelle Gentemann, NASA’s Open Science Program Scientist, offering insight into the exciting missions across NASA in 2025.

Experience an immersive, 15-minute planetarium show that visually traces the Parker Solar Probe's voyage, followed by Dr. Rawafi’s in-depth presentation on heliophysics research, space plasma phenomena, and magnetic fields in the heliosphere.

Nour Rawafi

Dr. Nour Rawafi is an astrophysicist and the project scientist for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission, which launched in 2018. Dr. Rawafi’s research encompasses a wide range of solar and heliospheric areas with an emphasis on the dynamic solar corona via the analysis of spectral and imaging observations, theory, and modeling. His primary contributions have been in the areas of solar magnetic fields, coronal spectropolarimetry, coronal plumes and jets, coronal mass ejections, coronal shockwaves, solar wind, solar energetic particles, and cometary physics. Dr. Rawafi is a member of the American Geophysical Union, American Astronomical Society (AAS), and AAS Solar Physics Division.

Josh Richman

Josh Richman is an aerospace engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, where he serves as the Deputy Spacecraft Systems Engineer for the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission and the guidance and control (G&C) lead for NASA’s TIMED mission. He is also a member of the Dragonfly and IMAP G&C teams, writing software for control in deep space and parachute deployment algorithms for atmospheric entry. Previously, Richman played a key role in flight operations for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, NASA’s first planetary defense test.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to learn firsthand from some of the leading figures in solar exploration.