Allan Weatherwax
Research Scientist My areas of expertise are astrophysical plasma physics, geospace, auroral physics, radio emissions, wave propagation, and space weather.Allan T. Weatherwax, Ph.D., is an experienced administrator and teaching-scholar who has contributed to fundamental research in space and astrophysical plasma physics. During the previous decade, he assumed academic positions with progressive levels of responsibility, most recently serving as the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs airs at Merrimack College in Massachusetts. As Provost at Merrimack College, Dr. Weatherwax was responsible for planning, implementing and managing Merrimack’s academic policies as well as for oversight of the college’s academic expense budget of approximately $80 million. He was also responsible for advising the President on all major matters of resource allocation within the academic areas of the college, including hiring of new and replacement positions within the faculty, decisions regarding sabbaticals, tenure and promotion, construction and other capital projects, and space allocation. Before his appointment as Provost, Dr. Weatherwax was recruited from Siena College in 2015 to be the Dean of Science and Engineering and Professor of Physics at Merrimack.
As a scholar, Dr. Weatherwax conducted research in the polar-regions since the 1990s, and served as principal investigator on numerous NSF and NASA grants. Together with his research team of students and engineers, he directed optical, radio, and magnetic experiments in Antarctica, Canada, and Greenland. He also served as the co-director of one of the first small student-built satellites that explored the mysteries of gamma rays produced by lightning discharges, and a related experiment that was on board the International Space Station. For those efforts, NASA recognized his student-centric team with a NASA Agency Group Achievement Award.
Dr. Weatherwax serves/served on numerous national and international committees including the Polar Research Board of the National Academies. He is the author of approximately 200 engineering and science papers, many with undergraduate student co-authors. The Weatherwax Glacier in Antarctica is named in his honor to recognize his research efforts on that continent. Dr. Weatherwax received the Raymond Kennedy Excellence in Scholarship Award at Siena College and in 2010 he was a finalist for the Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Weatherwax holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Dartmouth.