Neal Hurlburt
Solar Physicist
Lockheed-Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory

What is my job: I am primarily a theoretical physicist, exploring how the gases in and near stars like the sun move. My main tools for this exploration are computers, which I use both to solve the complex equations that describe these motions and to compare my results with observations. I also spend a lot of time deciding what sort of computers to buy, how to set them up and how to keep them running for various projects within our laboratory.

How did I get here: I grew up outside of Seattle, and got my Physics degree in nearby Olympia. I moved to Colorado to get my Ph.D. and then spent a year working in England. I met my wife there, and after we were married we wandered around the US for a few years before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area (California) ten years ago.

What is the most exciting thing about my job: The best thing about my job is that I get to do most of the things that I like the most and am reasonably free to choose what I want to work on.

What my workday is like: I spend most of my time reading, writing, thinking and talking about the sun, trying to understand how it works. But, since what we do here involves so many pictures, I get to spend lots of time making movies, and have many opportunities to work

Projects I'm working on: During the past two years, I have been the data scientist for the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer mission (TRACE). That means I oversee the sorting, cataloging and distribution of the data collected by the TRACE telescope orbiting the Earth.. Most of this is done automatically with computers and on the Internet. You can see the results at http://vestige.lmsal.com/TRACE.

Why did I pick this as a career: One evening while in college, I was watching the show "NOVA" on PBS-TV and saw the perfect job. There was a fellow who seemed to spend his time in the great libraries of Europe studying ancient records of the Sun in search of how changes in its radiation influenced the Earth's weather. I was interested in the weather and I liked hanging around libraries, so I went off to Colorado and became a solar physicist.

Claim to Fame: 15 seconds of one of my computer models on the CBS Evening News
Favorite Bands/Music: Frank Zappa, Beethoven
Favorite Food: Ice cream
Favorite movie: Rashomon . .
Favorite book: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.

Talking physics with other astronomers in England. Tourist time in England with my kids.