Dr. James Wanliss recently received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award for his teaching and research of space weather. The foundation's most prestigious award is given to faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Wanliss, in his first year at PC, intended to focus solely on teaching when he received his first professorship at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He quickly won acclaim for his research.

“I was supposed to do a little research on the side,” he said,  “but I started winning these awards from the National Science Foundation, and it just exploded. I’m grateful to God for providing the opportunity.”

Before arriving at PC, Wanliss taught at the University of Alberta, where he also researched with the Canadian Space Agency. Most recently, he taught for six years and was tenured at Embry-Riddle before deciding to come to PC.

“South Carolina is a place I’ve wanted to go for a while. We have friends in the area,” he said. “I like the idea of a liberal arts college, and I like the idea of a church-related college.”

In addition to teaching physics, Wanliss directs the Space Weather Undergraduate Research Laboratory (SWURL) at PC. Although his research interests are broad, ranging from space physics to pharmacotherapy and human factors psychology, Wanliss and the SWURL members focus on space weather research.

“There are massive storms that blow up satellites,” Wanliss said. “These things come from the sun, which is blowing winds towards us all the time, hits the earth’s atmosphere, makes it expand, heats it up, damages satellites, and sometimes damages power grids on the ground.”

He and students conduct a variety of research in space physics including space plasma physics, magnetospheric physics, ionospheric physics, atmospheric physics, and heliospheric studies. Since Wanliss has been at PC, several SWURL members have been invited to attend and present at national conferences.

“There’s so much technology in space right now. There are billions and billions of dollars in satellites,” Wanliss said. “The technology that we work with is to try to make sure that these satellites stay up there. If they go down, all the cell towers go down; stock markets go down. So we want to try to predict when these storms are going to happen and try to figure out how to mitigate the damage that’s done.”

While he continues to receive considerable notoriety for his research, Wanliss places a high priority on teaching.

“If a student ends up going into research and is able to publish papers, that tells me he or she has learned to think,” Wanliss said. “If a student goes into industry and is successful, can communicate, and can be one of the top people, I’m happy. I’ve done my job.”

The NSF CAREER Award is the second award Wanliss has received while at PC. He has also received NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development award and several other awards and designations.