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After completing training in Physics and Atmospheric Sciences in 2003, Tomoko Matsuo invested time to build expertise in statistics and data assimilation. She has received unique training in statistics as part of an NSF program to build collaborative research and training between statistics and the geosciences at NCAR's Institute of Mathematics Applied to Geosciences through 2007. Before joining in the Smead Aerospace Engineering Department in 2017, she has worked at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center as a Research Associate in CU Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

As a Principal Investigator (PI), with funding ($6.2M) from the NSF, NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), NOAA, Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Air Force Research Lab, she has developed original and independent research programs centered on data assimilative modeling and remote sensing of the Earth and space environments, and received an NSF CAREER award for her work into the predictability of the atmosphere from the ground to near-Earth space in 2019. She is a Smead Endowed Faculty Fellow as of 2022. She has also received an Outstanding Junior Faculty award and an Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching & Mentoring award from the Smead Aerospace Department in 2019 and 2021, and a Dean’s Faculty Fellowship from the College of Engineering and Applied Science in 2021. She has authored and co-authored over 70 refereed publications. Because of her unique training in physics, atmospheric sciences, and statistics and the interdisciplinary nature of data assimilation research, she collaborates widely across disciplinary boundaries with space physicists, atmospheric scientists, aerospace engineers, applied mathematicians, and statisticians. She has been actively recruited to give talks and lead sessions at national and international meetings, including about 90 invited talks. Outcomes from her research group have furthermore been reported in over 130 oral and poster contributed conference presentations since 2017.

Since 2017, she mentored 64 students in total, including 7 PhD students as an advisor, 1 PhD student as a co-advisor, 6 MS students as an advisor (two with MS theses), 4 PhD students on PhD research and dissertation in collaboration with their academic advisors, 22 PhD students as a PhD thesis committee member, 2 MS students as a MS thesis committee member, 9 graduate students as a qualifying exam committee member, and 7 graduate and 6 undergraduate students on their internship projects.  She has developed and taught two graduate-level courses on Data Assimilation and Inverse Methods for Earth and Geospace Observations (ASEN 6055) and Remote Sensing Data Analysis (ASEN 6337) as well as one large undergraduate-level course on Aerospace Computing and Engineering Applications (ASEN 1320). She also developed and taught a new graduate project on the research payload design for suborbital vehicles (ASEN5018-805). Other courses she taughed include Statistical Estimation for Dynamical Systems (ASEN 5044), Aerospace Software (ASEN 4057), and Remote Sensing Seminars (ASEN 5210). She is a strong advocate for underrepresented minorities in science, engineering and mathematics. She has developed education outreach activities based on her graduate course work and offered two summer camps for first-generation precollegiate high-school students, and mentored local high-school students for the Boulder Valley School District Science Fair. 

She has served on high-level external and internal committees, including the U.S. National Committee for Geodesy and Geophysics (2023-current), the National Academy of Sciences Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033 Steering Committe (2022-2023), the ESA-NASA Lower Thermosphere-Ionosphere Science (EN-LoTIS) Working Group (2022-2023), the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) Geospace Data Assimilation Working Group (GeoDAWG) as Chair (2022-current), the NASA Heliophysics Advisory Committee (2017-2022), the ESA Daedalus Mission Advisory Group (2018-2021), the AGU Basu United States Early Career Award Committee (2017-2022), the NASA Geospace Dynamics Constellation Science and Technology Definition Team (2018-2019), the NSF Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Science Steering Committee (2012-2015), the NSF Geospace Section Committee of Visitors (2014), the Advisory Board for the Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s Center for Research Data and Digital Scholarship (2017-2022), the Department’s Graduate Committee (2018-2020), as the Remote Sensing Earth and Space Science (RSESS) Focus Area Lead, the Computing Committee as Chair (2019-2022), the Inclusive Culture Committee (2020-2022), and the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (2022-2023).

Download Prof. Matsuo’s Curriculum Vitae