Associate Professor
Physics Department
107 Peter Engel Science Center
jcrumley@csbsju.edu
320 363-3183
My main area of research is space physics, which is the study of the plasma environment which fills the space between the planets and the Sun in the solar system. This research involves analysis of data from spacecraft and computer simulations of the phenomena seen in space. My PhD thesis is entitled "Particle Simulations and Polar Spacecraft Observations of Solitary Waves in the Magnetosphere" and I have had a paper based on the same research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. I am also interested in lightning and the electromagnetic waves that it leads to.
To keep in shape I like bicycling, lifting weights, and cross country skiing. I try to bike to school most days, though winter has cut my biking down to 11 or 10 months of the year. For relaxation I like to reading (science fiction in particular), watching movies, and watching sports. I am a somewhat conflicted sports fan with my favorite teams including the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bulls, Wisconsin Badgers, and Minnesota Gophers. Since I did my undergraduate work at Wisconsin, my first loyalties are to the Badgers, though those loyalties became difficult to maintain as my graduate career at Minnesota stretched out and I became more familiar with the Gopher players. I have gone to some Johnnies and Blazers games, but I haven't yet been hooked, though that will probably happen pretty soon now. My tastes in movies and music are both pretty wide. Some of my favorite movies are 2001, Taxi Driver, It's a Wonderful Life, Grapes of Wrath, Fargo, and Blade Runner. The music that I like is concentrated in rock/alternative, but includes a little bit of everything - from Led Zeppelin and Frank Sinatra, to REM and the Strokes.