Public profile
Biography
Professor Chan's primary research area is the acceleration and transport of energetic particles in space plasmas, particularly relativistic electrons in Earth's magnetosphere. This work involves theory and simulation of the dynamics of relativistic particles in magnetospheric electromagnetic fields, including motion in large-scale fields and in a variety of electromagnetic plasma waves. Relativistic electrons are of great interest because it is not well understood how they are accelerated to such high energies and because these particles are potentially harmful to technological systems and to humans in space. Recently Dr. Chan and his research group have been collaborating on a number of projects to develop advanced theoretical models of relativistic electron dynamics. Research on the relativistic electrons is undertaken with researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder and at the University of Iowa, and with other Rice faculty.
Research areas
Theoretical plasma physics with emphasis on fundamental plasma physics and space plasmas