Caitano da Silva (center, striped shirt) with several of his student colleagues

Socorro, N.M. (Nov. 11, 2024)—Dr. Caitano da Silva, associate professor of physics, has received the American Geophysical Union’s 2024 Atmospheric and Space Electricity Early Career Award. It is presented biennially in even years and recognizes significant contributions to atmospheric and space electricity science from honorees within 10 years of receiving their Ph.D. degree.

“It is an honor to receive such a prestigious award,” da Silva said. “I attend the AGU fall meeting every year. So, I feel quite proud to see our work being highlighted. This award was issued by the AGU section I am most closely involved with, the Atmospheric and Space Electricity section. Previous honorees from this section include professors from Osaka University (Japan), University of Reading (UK), and Texas Tech University. It is great to put New Mexico Tech on this list. In fact, this award is a recognition of the collective research done by our team at the Department of Physics and at Langmuir Laboratory, which is highly student-driven.”

A colleague in NMT’s Physics Department, Professor Emeritus Dr. Paul Krehbiel said, “Caitano has been a shining light in Langmuir Laboratory's lightning research group at Tech, and is well-deserving of AGU's prestigious Early Career Award. He's also particularly good at involving and working with students on research projects, as well as classwork.”

The director of the Langmuir Laboratory, Dr. Richard Sonnenfeld, said, “Prof. da Silva is a versatile scientist and a gracious collaborator. His modeling efforts have already achieved national recognition, and his physical insights and deep knowledge of atmospheric electricity literature are making the lightning group very productive. I am delighted for him that he received this recognition from AGU, and am personally grateful that he has chosen to begin his career at New Mexico Tech.”

Another colleague, Dr. Ningyu Liu from the University of New Hampshire, added: “I think Dr. Caitano da Silva totally deserves the award as he has made important contributions to advancing our understanding of lightning physics.”

Dr. da Silva has numerous scholarly publications and, notably, recently co-authored a paper with one of his undergraduate advisees, Brandon Smith, as the lead author. Its title is “Sprite Durations Measured with a Neuromorphic Sensor,” published in Geophysical Research Letters. Smith, who graduated in May 2024, is now pursuing a Ph.D. from da Silva’s alma mater, Penn State.

Dr. da Silva’s research interests span atmospheric and space sciences, geophysics, and plasma physics. More recently, he has investigated thunderstorms and their effects in the near-Earth space environment; lightning physics; modeling of electrical discharge plasmas; waves in space plasmas; and development of computer-based tools for analysis of atmospheric and geophysical phenomena.

AGU is the world’s largest Earth and space science association. AGU24 will convene more than 25,000 attendees from over 100 countries in Washington, D.C. and online everywhere on Dec. 9-13, 2024.

Da Silva added that the December meeting will feature an entire session of Tech professors and students discussing lightning physics.