Dr. David S. Smith

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

Research

I study astrophysics, space physics, and astrobiology, particularly the effects of "extraplanetary" radiation, such as cosmic rays, X-rays, and gamma-rays, on planetary habitability and manned space missions. I've also worked on the physics of the solar wind and how it interacts with planetary atmospheres and the interstellar medium.

Collaborators

• Joe Giacalone (LPL)
• John Scalo (UT-Austin)
• J. Craig Wheeler (UT-Austin).

Education

PhD, The University of Texas at Austin, 2006 (dissertation, 4 MB pdf)
AM, Harvard University, 2002
BS and BA, The University of Texas at Austin, 2001

CV

Refereed Publications

arXiv preprints (arXiv versions are same as refereed versions)

Interesting Notes and Figures

Cartoon of high-energy photon transport in atmospheres
Derivation of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Using the GNU C Standard Library Function sincos() in Fortran
C++ ODE integrator class using the Dormand-Prince (7,8) pair (.tgz)
Fast IO in C for scientists
Benefits of Ada for scientific computing

My soulmate