Meet the Fellows
Research Experiences: Ryan Milligan
Who knew the open road could one day lead to outer space? That’s the response former professional truck driver Dr. Ryan Milligan gives when asked if he ever thought he would someday work for NASA. Yet, at just 33 years of age, the Belfast-native has left his Irish roots to become an accomplished solar physicist and fellow in the NASA Postdoctoral Program.
His journey began 11 years ago when Milligan was spending up to 60 hours a week working as a professional freelance truck driver for dozens of transportation companies in Northern Ireland. Despite an appreciation for the freedom of the open road, Milligan made a life-changing decision to attend Queen’s University in Belfast where he could study a longtime interest of his—the universe.
“I think my fascination with space began when I was a young kid living in Ireland’s countryside. The clear night skies were ideal for star gazing and when I was 11, I got to witness Halley’s Comet. The thought of it looping the solar system every 76 years really fascinated me,” said Milligan. “Later on, reaching the decision to start my degree at a relatively late age was definitely a challenge, but as much as I enjoyed truck driving, I certainly never thought of doing it for the rest of my life.”
Even as a student, Milligan continued to drive trucks on nights and weekends in order to help fund his education. Five years and tens of thousands of miles later, Milligan received his Master of Science in physics and applied mathematics.
Milligan’s academic success did not stop there though. Instead, he immediately enrolled in the Ph.D. program at Queen’s University, choosing a specialization in solar physics. During this time, Milligan went stateside, spending more than six months at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where he conducted research for NASA’s Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). The small explorer mission, which focused on the basic physics of particle acceleration and explosive energy release in solar flares, eventually became essential to Milligan’s thesis on chromospheric evaporation.
“Chromospheric evaporation has long been thought to be the process by which solar flares achieve their high temperatures and densities,” said Milligan. “Previous studies of chromospheric evaporation had only ever observed either the cause or the effect. My research attempted to capture both simultaneously by combining data from two very different types of space-based solar observatories and then comparing the results with the predictions of theory.”
In December 2006, Milligan finished his Ph.D. and quickly realized that the contacts and experience he obtained while stationed at Goddard made it the obvious choice for him to apply for a temporary research position. He was accepted into the NASA Postdoctoral Program—a competitive fellowship appointment administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
While in the program, Milligan analyzed X-ray observations of solar flares and continued to investigate the effect of energy released during these explosive events. His efforts resulted in a significant observation: that energy released during a solar flare is more efficient at achieving a higher temperature if the energy is used to directly heat the plasma in the sun’s atmosphere, instead of being divided between heating and particle acceleration.
Ready to share his findings with other researchers, Milligan returned to his alma mater in March 2008 and presented his discovery during the Royal Astronomical Society’s 2008 National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His findings were also published in the April 2008 edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a scientific journal for astronomy and astrophysics, and were the subject of a NASA press release.
Milligan has another year or two left in the NASA Postdoctoral Program, after which, he hopes to find a similar research opportunity in his native country where he can be closer to family and friends. But it’s safe to assume that if Milligan’s future is as unpredictable as the past 11 years, who knows where the former truck-driver-turned-astrophysicist will be 10 years from now—quite literally, the sky’s the limit.