NSF CAREER award (2011-2016)
Elected Vice Chair Commission G (URSI)
Arecibo Science Advisory Panel
National Research Council Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board Micrometeoroid and Orbital Debris Panel Member
Hellman Faculty Scholar 2010
Meteoroids 2010 Scientific Organizing Committee
National Research Council Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board Review of Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies Mitigation Panel Member
Planetary Decadal Survey Interplanetary Dust
Cover of IEEE Spectrum 2008
1st Place Student Paper Competition International Union of Radio Science
Exceptional Efforts in Meteoroid Impact Study
Joe D. Marshall Award presented by AFTAC for Outstanding Technical Briefing
MIT Lincoln Scholar
Prof. Close's research involves space weather detection and modeling for improved spacecraft designs, and advanced signal processing and electromagnetic wave interactions with plasma for ground-to-satellite communication systems. These topics fall under the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) umbrella that include environmental remote sensing using satellite systems and ground-based radar. Her current efforts are the MEDUSSA (Meteoroid, Energetics, and Debris Understanding for Space Situational Awareness) program, TALIS (Tomographic Array for Lightning and Ionospheric Studies) using ground-based and space-based RF sensors, and using ground-based radar data to characterize the meteoroid population and its threat to spacecraft. Future work includes using CubeSats for asteroid detection and characterization.
