Solar Stellar X-ray Group
High Energy Astrophysics Division

Dr. Kasper is an astrophysicist in the Solar and Stellar X-Ray Group in the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a Lecturer in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University. He also is a visiting scholar at the Boston University Center for Space Physics.

He studies the flow of energy in astrophysical plasmas, including the solar corona, the solar wind, and planetary magnetospheres. His research focuses on the role of non-thermal velocity distribution functions, plasma micro-instabilities, magnetic reconnection, turbulence, and dissipation in the physical processes of heating, bulk acceleration, collisionless shocks, energetic particle acceleration, and radio emission. He has worked on the development, construction, and analysis of instrumentation for the in-situ and remote measurement of particles and fields, including space-based plasma probes and particle telescopes such as the Faraday Cups on Wind, and ground based radio telescopes including the Mileura Wide-Field Array Low Frequency Demonstrator (MWA-LFD). He is leading the design and operation of the Faraday Rotation Subsystem for MWA-LFD and participating in the radio transients, sky survey, and ionospheric calibration efforts. He is a member of the US organizing and instrumentation committees for the 2007 International Heliophysical Year and the project scientist for the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER), which will be launched in 2009 on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.