Merav Opher

Physics and Astronomy Dept.
College of Science

Assistant Professor
Office: 363B Sci &Tech I
MSN 3F3
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
PHONE: 703-993-4571

FAX: 703-993-1269

E-mail: mopher@physics.gmu.edu

Ph.D., Physics & Astronomy, Univ of Sao Paulo, 1998

B.S., Physics, University of Sao Paulo, 1992

Group website: Computational Group for Astrophysics and Space Physics 

News about Opher's research

I am an Assistant Professor in the Dept of Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University.
My research interests are magnetic field processes in astrophysics, particularly how magnetic
field affect the interstellar medium, disks around young stars, solar, stellar winds, jets and the
early universe. I am using sophisticated state-of-the-art numerical modeling as
experiments in conjunction with new theoretical approaches and observational data.

I am also interested in developing new computational models (such as coupling Kinetic-MHD models;
PIC Codes-MHD; new AMR techniques, etc).

Recent results can be found in the paper "Orientation of the Interstellar Magnetic Field", Science May 10, 2007

POSITIONS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE:

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Ph.D student

By studying the interaction of our solar system with the rest of the galaxy we will be able to understand how stars inte

Recent Awards:        NSF CAREER: "Understanding the Evolution and Nature of Shocks and Sheets in Space Physics"  
                                    Nominated to PECASE (Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers) 

Images and movie about my research

Voyager 1 and 2, the most distant man-made objects are right now probing the confines of the solar system. It is believed that Voyager 1 in
December 15, 2004 has exited the Termination Shock, the first boundary of the solar system, and now is going through the turbulent region
the Heliosheath where magnetic effects are crucial. Voyager 2 in the next year or two is going to cross the shock going southward from Voyager 1.

Recently we predicted that the heliosphere is asymmetric and were able to match the Voyager 1 and 2 particle observations. By matching the radio
data and particle we are able to find the plane of the interstellar magnetic field plane. An example of my 3D MHD simulations:

I am also interested on how GeV particles are accelerated in shocks, and how low in the corona can those structures form. I am using Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) data, one of the more powerful magnetic disturbances of the Sun affect Earth - in particular,

The Sun is a powerful laboratory to study plasma phenomena. Questions such as how CMEs are formed and ejected, how particles are accelerated,
magnetic instabilities can be studied there.

I received a B.A from the University of São Paulo, Brazil in 1992 and a Ph.D. in plasma astrophysics from the Astronomy Department of the
University of São Paulo, Brazil in 1998. We worked as scientific staff at Jet Propulsion Laboratory until coming to George Mason University. Previously, I was a
Caltech postdoctoral fellow working with Paulett Liewer (JPL) and Tamas Gombosi (University of Michigan). Before coming to JPL, I spent
two years as a postdoctoral associate in the plasma group at UCLA from 1999-2001. From 2001-2004 I was a Caltech Postdoctoral Scholar at JPL.
My previous post-doctoral experience was working in plasma astrophysics in the plasma group at UCLA. There I worked with George Morales,
Jean Noel Leuboff and John Dawson. Our research involved the study of the effects of electromagnetic fluctuations on nuclear reaction rates. Because
the reaction rates are very sensitive to the high energy region of the particle spectrum, they can be affected by distortion of the particle distributions due to
electromagnetic fluctuations.

Teaching: