Mario Acuna
Dr. Acuña was born in 1940, in Cordoba, Argentina, from where he later received his undergraduate degree at the University there. He went on to receive an MSEE degree in 1967, from the University of Tucuman and then a doctorate in space science from the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C., in 1974. From 1963 to 1967, Dr. Acuña worked for the department of electrical engineering and the Ionospheric Research Laboratory at the University of Tucuman, as well as for the Argentine National Space Research Commission. These research activities included several cooperative sounding rocket programs with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center involving both U.S. and South American scientists, X-ray research with high-altitude balloons and meteorological tracking stations. In 1967, he joined the Fairchild-Hiller Corporation in Germantown, Maryland, to provide engineering and scientific support services to NASA; he became head of the Electronic Systems Division in 1968. Since 1969, Dr. Acuña has been associated with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where his research interests have centered around experimental investigations of the magnetic fields and plasmas in the Solar System. He has participated in several planetary missions, including the Explorers 47 and 50 missions, Mariner 10, Pioneer 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, MAGSAT, Project Firewheel (Germany, Canada, United States and United Kingdom), Viking (Sweden), the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE: Germany, United States, United Kingdom), The International Solar Polar Mission and the GIOTTO mission (ESA) to comet Halley. In 1986, he was selected as the Principal Investigator for the Mars Observer Magnetic Field Investigation (launched in 1992) and is currently in charge of the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft's magnetometer. Dr. Acuña has published more than 60 research articles, mainly in the field of planetary magnetism.
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