University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz recently visited the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). LASP is CU Boulder’s longest-established and highest-budgeted research institute and the only academic research institute to have sent instruments to every planet in the solar system, and beyond. The visit was part of the chancellor’s campus-wide listening tour to gather information about needs and opportunities. Schwartz, who became CU Boulder’s 12th chancellor in July 2024, is using the listening tour to help set campus priorities.
The discussion and tour with LASP Director Daniel Baker, other senior leaders, scientists, engineers, and administrators covered a wide range of topics, including the lab’s position as an academic aerospace research institute with NASA as its main partner. In fiscal year 2024, the lab garnered $203 million in research awards, representing 28 percent of research revenue received by CU Boulder. LASP celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and over the last decade has grown to comprise more than 750 employees, including more than 200 undergraduate and graduate students.
“LASP has had 76 years of amazing impact in the scientific world,” said Schwartz. “It is a research enterprise that’s significantly larger than a number of R-1 universities, and it continues to show the greatness of CU Boulder’s intellectual capabilities and research impact.”
The chancellor, accompanied by Massimo Ruzzene, vice chancellor for research and innovation and dean of the institutes, toured LASP’s Space Technology Building (LSTB) and the Astrophysical Research Lab (ARL), where he spoke with staff about the laboratory’s history and missions.
The chancellor also visited the lab’s clean room facility, where Director of Engineering Scott Tucker discussed the LASP-built Europa Surface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) instrument that recently launched aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to study whether the icy moon of Jupiter might possess conditions suitable for life.
Schwartz, who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering from MIT, asked insightful technical questions about the detection capabilities of the time-of-flight mass spectrometer, and its testing and calibration during development, some of which occurred in the CU Boulder IMPACT Dust Accelerator Lab. The chancellor also asked about the SUDA team’s expectations for what the instrument may find after it arrives at Jupiter in 2030.
“We are hypothesizing that we could detect complex organics that have upwelled from Europa’s subsurface ocean,” said Tucker. “Which ones, though, we can’t say.”
In ARL, Schwartz spoke with Amal Chandran, lead of LASP’s CubeSat Program, which has a 100-percent success rate returning scientific data and was recently named a COSPAR Center of Excellence for Capacity Building in CubeSat Technologies. Chandran discussed the INSPIRE program, which joins students, instructors, universities, industry, and space agencies around the world in an endeavor to educate new engineers and scientists, build and launch new space missions, and drive leading-edge scientific discovery and technology.
The chancellor then visited with LASP Program Managers Pete Withnell and Dan Kubitschek to discuss two more of LASP’s international collaborations—the Emirates Mission to Mars (EMM), which launched in 2020, and the upcoming Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA)—before meeting with LASP Senior Research Scientists Peter Pilewskie and Erik Richard about LASP’s climate-observing missions, including TSIS, Libera, and the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder mission.
After CLARREO’s expected launch and installation on the International Space Station later this decade, it will measure sunlight reflected from Earth with five to 10 times greater accuracy than current sensors, which will help deliver highly precise data crucial for monitoring and predicting climate trends. During the chancellor’s visit, LASP System Engineers Isobel Griffin and Kate Boykin demonstrated a full-range-of-motion test of CLARREO’s pointing system.
The visit concluded with a discussion of upcoming opportunities and missions and the role CU Boulder can play in LASP’s ongoing efforts to advance scientific discovery and to inspire the next generation through forefront research, innovation, and education. To commemorate the visit, Director Baker presented Chancellor Schwartz with a plaque, specially made by the LASP Engineering Production Services team.
“It was a pleasure to host Chancellor Schwartz and share LASP’s storied history and achievements, and to discuss future opportunities as well as challenges,” said Baker. “We look forward to continuing the role that LASP plays at CU Boulder and has played since 1948.”
By Sara Pratt, LASP Senior Communications Specialist
Founded a decade before NASA, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder is on a mission to revolutionize human understanding of the cosmos by pioneering new technologies and approaches to space science. The institute is at the forefront of solar, planetary, and space physics research, climate and space-weather monitoring, and the search for evidence of habitable worlds. LASP is also deeply committed to inspiring and educating the next generation of space explorers. From the first exploratory rocket measurements of Earth’s upper atmosphere to trailblazing observations of every planet in the solar system, LASP continues to build on its remarkable history with a nearly $1 billion portfolio of new research and engineering programs, backed by superb data analysis, reliable mission operations, and skilled administrative support.
