Learn about SwRI, an internationally respected institution and leader among independent, nonprofit research and development organizations. Their staff of scientists, engineers and analysts continues to accomplish outstanding fundamental and applied engineering and research for clients from diverse segments of government and industry. Our host will discuss hardware capabilities, expertise, and success stories followed by an overview of current projects and future directions.

Our host, Dr. Rafkin, researches planetary atmospheres with a specialization in numerical weather prediction, mesoscale modeling, atmospheric dynamics, and cloud microphysics. He has extensive experience developing weather and research modeling codes and has applied these to the study of mesoscale circulations, clouds, and aerosols for Earth and to other terrestrial planetary atmospheres including Mars, Titan, Venus, and Pluto. Dr. Rafkin also develops and leads proposals for space instrumentation and missions for remote and in situ atmospheric measurements with an emphasis on laser spectroscopy. He holds a B.S. in Atmospheric Science from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University. He is currently a Program Director at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.