Biography

R. Du Toit Strauss received his Ph.D. in Space Physics from the North-West University, South Africa, where he is currently a professor in physics. For his Ph.D., he studied the transport of cosmic rays through the turbulent interplanetary medium using a combination of particle transport and large-scale heliospheric MHD models. Since then, he has focussed primarily on simulating the transport of solar energetic particles through the inner heliosphere but has a general interest in the propagation of charged particles through turbulent plasmas (both from a theoretical and simulation perspective). On the experimental side, he is leading the South African neutron monitor program and has initiated, amongst others, a program to characterize the radiation environment, at aviation altitudes, over Southern Africa.

Research Interests

Du Toit’s primary research interests involve modeling cosmic-ray propagation through the turbulent heliosphere. The developed models are applied to various cosmic ray species inside the heliosphere, including anomalous and galactic cosmic rays, Jovian electrons, and solar energetic particles. He joined Princeton for a 6-week visiting fellowship.

Dates of visit:

June to July 2023

Publications

See the full list of publications at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kpTqCHsAAAAJ&hl=en.