Maura Hagan

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
Deputy Director
Maura Hagan Image

Maura Hagan was awarded a B.A. in physics from Emmanuel College in 1975, and both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Boston College in 1980 and 1986, respectively. Between 1986 and 1992, she was a staff member at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory. She joined the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) staff as a scientist in the High Altitude Observatory in 1992 and was promoted to Senior Scientist in 2003. She served as Director of the NCAR Advanced Study Program from 2005 to 2010. She became the NCAR Deputy Director in 2008. Her research interests are centered on investigations of the mesosphere, thermosphere and ionosphere with emphases on the coupling between these atmospheric regions, including the upward propagating effects of tides and planetary waves and the downward penetration of space weather effects. She has authored or co-authored more than 90 refereed publications. For several years she served as the project leader for the Coordinated Analysis of the Thermosphere within the National Science Foundation Coupling Energetics and Dynamics (CEDAR) Program. She was associate editor for Geophysical Research Letters (1993-1997), a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Solar Terrestrial Research (1996-2000) and the CEDAR Science Steering Committee (1997-2000). She served on the Steering Committee of the Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric and Related Sciences (SOARS) program (1996-2001), the Atmosphere-Ionosphere-Magnetosphere Panel for the Solar and Space Physics Community Assessment and Strategy for the Future, as a Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) Scientific Discipline Representative to the International Council of Scientific Unions (1999-2007), the NASA Geospace Management Operations Working Group (2003-2007), and co-chaired the SCOSTEP Planetary Scale Mesopause Observing System Steering Committee (1998-2002). She is currently a member of the NRC Committee on Solar and Space Physics.