Plasma Physicist
Interests: Plasma, Space Physics, Astrophysics, Philosophy Age: 75
Dr. Timothy E. Eastman of Plasmas International is a consultant and concurrently a group manager for science support at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He has more than 30 years of experience in research and consulting in space physics, space science data systems, space weather, plasma applications, public outreach and education, and philosophy. He has provided key leadership of the nation's research programs in space plasma physics while program manager at NASA Headquarters (1985-1988) and NSF (1991-1994).
Dr. Eastman discovered the Low-Latitude Boundary Layer (LLBL) of the Earth's magnetosphere (1976), and discovered gyro-phase bunched ions in space plasmas by analyzing energetic ion distribution functions near Earth's bow shock (1981). He has published over 100 research papers in space physics and related fields. He conceived and edited two special issues on "Process Thought and Natural Science", published in the journal Process Studies (1997/1998), and co-convened the first major workshop on Physics and Whitehead at Claremont University in 1998.
While at NASA and NSF, Eastman was co-developer of key foundations for major international and interagency projects, including the International Solar Terrestrial Physics program, the Interagency Space Weather Program, and the Basic Plasma Science and Engineering program. He created and maintains major Web sites for plasma science and applications at plasmas.org and plasmas.com, and is lead editor of a book in philosophy of physics entitled Physics and Whitehead, published in 2004 by SUNY Press. Dr. Eastman's interest in philosophy and philosophy of science extends over three decades with several journal publications in philosophy in addition to the SUNY volume; further, he is on International Advisory Boards for Process Studies and Studia Whiteheadiana (Poland). In early 2009, Dr. Eastman received the Creative Advance Award from the International Process Network for "outstanding scholarly advancement of process-relational thought. http://www.csus.edu/cpns/fellows/t_eastman.html
