Sigrid Elschot

Sigrid Elschot is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, leading the Space Environment and Satellite Systems laboratory. Her research focuses on space weather, plasma interactions, and hypervelocity impact effects on spacecraft. She holds prestigious awards such as the PECASE and NSF/DoE CAREER awards. She teaches courses like Plasma Physics and Space Environment Analysis.

• Education & Affiliations: Stanford University faculty since at least 2011, affiliated with the School of Engineering.
• Research Interests: Space Situational Awareness (SSA), plasma dynamics in space environments, ground-to-satellite communication systems, and hypervelocity impact physics.

Her lab uses dust accelerators and light-gas guns to study spacecraft impacts, alongside Particle-In-Cell simulations. Recent work includes analyzing electromagnetic pulses from meteoroid impacts and radar characterization of space debris. Over 65 publications span plasma physics, astrodynamics, and space engineering.

• Grants & Funding: DoE, NSF, and Hellman Fellowships support her work.
• Professional Roles: Member of URSI Commission G, AMISR Advisory Panel, and DOE Fusion Energy Sciences advisory roles.

Her team advises over 20 doctoral and master’s students, with active projects on plasma charging, soliton dynamics, and meteoroid orbital analysis. Current courses include AA242A (Plasma Physics) and AA244A (Space Environment).