Dr. Amnon Stupp's Home Page

Personal Information

Since December 2000 I am the scientific manager of ISA-MEIDA, which is the Israeli node of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System. (EOSDIS), serving NASA's Earth Science Enterprise.

During 2000 I worked for the Interdisciplinary Center for Technological Analysis and Forecasting (ICTAF), and enjoyed it. The Center has good people who produce insightfull analyses.

In 2000 I also did some work helping people to prepare and submit applications to the EU's fifth framework program (FP5) for European research and development.

My Ph.D. is in Astrophysics from the  Tel-Aviv Astronomy and Astrophysics Department . I completed my Ph.D. in 1998 and the degree granting ceremony was on June 1999.
In the course of my M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies I taught physics classes, and discovered that I like teaching.
Since I got good reviews from the students,it seems the feeling was mutual.

Professional Information

Education

Ph.D. The Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy of Tel-Aviv University. Submitted October 1998, received June 1999.
Ph.D. subject : Microwave Emission from Solar Flares
Ph.D. supervisor : Professor Ben-Zion Kozlovsky
M.Sc. The Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy of Tel-Aviv University. Submitted January 1993, received with distinction.
M.Sc. subject : Gamma-ray Lines from supernova SN1987A
M.Sc. supervisor : Professor Ben-Zion Kozlovsky
B.Sc. The Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy of Tel-Aviv University. Completed July 1987, received with distinction.

During my Ph.D. studies I spent several months at NASA's  Goddard Space Flight Center, with Dr. Reuven Ramaty, who was a friend and colleague of my advisor Professor Kozlovsky, and who sadly passed away on April 2001.
I was impressed with the Center, and with the activities of Dr. Ramaty and the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics.
The Center's homepage is also recommended.

My CV

Professional Interest

I am still interested in the subjects of my theses : SuperNovae, and the Sun.

During my Ph.D. I became interested in the subject of Solar effects on Earth, or the Sun-Earth connection as it is called.
This developed into an interest in Climate and in particular Global Warming.

There is now a general consensus in the scientific community that the world is getting warmer, and even former opponents admit it.
Most researchers in the field also agree that the warming is a result of human activities and greenhouse gases emission ( IPCC, globalchange.gov, GISS, but see also  Opposition).
Of course, there have been many warming and cooling episodes in the past, and some people claim that the present warming is just another such occurance.
The study of past climates is called PaleoClimatology. Paleoclimatology is crucial for trying to predict possible consequences of climate change, and also for determining what are the possible causes of the present warming.

Even if most scientists are wrong, and it is not human activities which are causing Global Change, the Warming has many harmful consequences.
For example, an increase in precipitation in one area causes destructive flooding, and a concomitant decrease in another area causes a drought.
It is therefore imperative that we prepare for the warming,  whatever the reason for it. This calls for work on national and global scale.

Other Interests

I am a Science Fiction fan, and a member of The Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy . I spoke in Society events, and moderated a panel in the  1998 Israeli S.F convention.
I was also a member of the former Rehovot Science Fiction Club. I am still a regular reader of the fanzine CyberCozen edited by Aharon Sheer who was chosen as the Fan Guest of Honor in Icon99.
My personal library of S.F.&F works holds over 700 books, most of them soft cover. I also have some reference works, such as the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, and the Illustrated Encyclopedia of S.F., all by Clute, and others.
However, the real S.F. expert is my friend Eli Eshed, who prepared a list of all original-Hebrew-S.F works. Together with  Inbal Saggiv's M.A thesis about translated S.F works this is an almost complete list of S.F&F works in Hebrew.
I am also a fan of comics, where I prefer to read graphic novels and trade-paperbacks to buying and reading the issues one by one.

My list of favourite S.F books

Contact :  amnons@post.tau.ac.il


Last update March 2005