Biography:

Michael DeLuca earned his undergraduate degree in Applied Math and Physics, and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. He then attended graduate school at the University of Colorado Boulder. He researched cosmic dust and meteors while earning a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences, focusing on Remote Sensing, Earth, and Space Sciences. He wrote his Ph.D. thesis based on laboratory experiments that simulated the atmospheric entry of meteors. These experiments helped determine the detectability of meteors by radar and the influence that micrometeoroids have on our atmosphere. While in Boulder, he also participated in developing the Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX), the dust analyzer on NASA's upcoming Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission. At Princeton, While at Princeton Michael worked on developing the Solar Wind and Pickup Ion (SWAPI) instrument, which will also fly on the IMAP mission. He also spend time working on data analysis from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission and is helping to build Princeton’s new space physics laboratory.