Picture of David

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
1629 E Univ Blvd
Tucson, AZ 85721-0092

GPS: 32.2324 -110.9472

Mobile: +1 512 771 9943
Office: +1 520 621 4534
Email:

PGP Key

Dr. David S. Smith

Postdoctoral Research Associate
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory

Research

I study astrophysics, space physics, and astrobiology, with special attention to the effects of "extraplanetary" radiation, such as cosmic rays, X-rays, and gamma-rays, on planetary habitability and manned space missions.

Lately I've been working on the physics of the solar wind and how it interacts with planetary atmospheres and the interstellar medium.

My primary collaborators are Joe Giacalone (LPL) and John Scalo and J. Craig Wheeler (UT-Austin).

See my CV for a list of my publications.

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

Interesting Notes and Figures

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

Code

Using the GNU C Standard Library Function sincos() in Fortran
C++ ODE integrator class using the Dormand-Prince (7,8) pair (.tgz)
C++ class for large data cubes
C++ histogram class
C++ CPU timing class
Dynamic arrays in C with macros
Generating uniform deviates from /dev/random
Fast IO in C for scientists
Interactive dice roller
Convert a C double to IEEE-754 binary
Writing better scientific code
Benefits of Ada for scientific computing

Personal

Iced tea recipe

My soulmate, Diana