Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
issues of propagating artificially generated relativistic electron beams in space. This effort has generated quantitative models describing beam propagation, the scattering by the atmosphere, and the importance of the Earth's magnetic field in confining beam spread. He was responsible for early relativistic particle models used in describing ionization effects in the mesosphere and supported the initial assessment of relativistic electron beam induced modifications to atmospheric electric fields.

Professor Gilchrist was a Co-Investigator on the 1992 high-energy electron beam CHARGE-2B tethered rocket experiment with responsibility for the science design of its neutral gas payload charge-neutralization experiment. He participated in both the VCAP Experiment on the Spacelab-2 Shuttle mission and the CHARGE-2 tethered rocket experiment which was a conducting tether experiment testing some of the TSS concepts.

His doctoral research at Stanford University was divided into two primary areas: a) investigations of electrodynamic effects due to electron beam and neutral gas emissions into a space plasma; and, b) radar and theoretical investigations of energetic electron beam generated artificial plasma density structures in the ionosphere using rockets and spacecraft. His masters thesis research, sponsored in part by a General Electric Fellowship, at the University of Illinois involved implementing an ionospheric total electron content radio measurement experiment optimized for nighttime application in the E and lower F regions of the ionosphere. The experiment was based on Faraday rotation, using a ground based HF transmitter, rocket borne receiver, and digital signal processing to extract the desired signals.

Professor Gilchrist has also held both technical and supervisory positions in industry (Watkins-Johnson Company) over a twelve-year period associated with microwave integrated circuit and subsystem design for radar and ecm applications. Research activities included: phased array radar, low-noise amplifiers, phase-shifters, and microwave sample-and-hold circuits.

 

Research Experience Patents

Professional Experience Chronology

Awards, Honors, and Recognitions Publications

CV (.pdf file)