Nikolai G. Lehtinen: Curriculum Vitae

Email:
WWW: http://nlpc.stanford.edu/nleht/

Education and Jobs (summary in chronological order)

• September 1989 – September 1994:
  Student at Nizhniy Novgorod State University (NNSU), Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia. Degree of a Specialist in Radiophysics and Electronics.
• February 1993 – December 1993:
  Exchange student at the University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT. B.S. in Physics, B.S. Minor in Business Economics (on leave from NNSU).
• October 1994 – March 2000:
  Ph.D. Program in the Physics Dept., Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
• March 2000 – December 2001:
  Postdoctoral researcher, Neutrino Physics Group, Physics Dept., Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
• January 2002 – November 2004:
  Postdoctoral researcher in cosmic ray physics, High Energy Physics Group, Physics & Astronomy Dept., University of Hawaii, Manoa, HI.
• December 2004 – April 2009:
  Research associate in the STAR Laboratory, Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
• April 2009 – present:
  Senior Research Associate in the STAR Laboratory, Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University, Stanford, CA.

Professional Experience in Physics

• September 1992 – September 1994: Specialized in plasma physics and non-linear dynamics at Nizhniy Novgorod State University (NNSU). Studied theoretically guided whistlers and excitation of ionospheric Alfven resonator with a plasma discharge, under the supervision of Prof. G. Markov.
• October 1994 – September 1995: During the first year at Stanford, 1994-1995, I performed research of coronal heating in the Solar Physics Group under the supervision of Professor P. Sturrock.
• October 1995 – March 2000: For my Ph.D. thesis, I specialized in the electrodynamics of middle and upper atmosphere at Stanford, under the supervision of Prof. U. Inan. The topic of my research was the theoretical studies of relativistic electron discharge above thunderclouds, and its role in optical discharges called Sprites, terrestrial gamma ray flashes, and other phenomena. The studies included Monte Carlo simulation of runaway electron avalanche and relativistic electron precipitation in ionosphere, simulation of electric discharge in atmosphere, calculations of electron bremsstrahlung and gamma photon propagation in the atmosphere. As a side topic, I studied the modification of the ionosphere by a gamma ray burst from a magnetar. The dissertation is entitled "Relativistic Runaway Electrons Above Thunderstorms".
• March 2000 – December 2001: As a postdoctoral researcher at the experimental Stanford Neutrino Physics Group, I studied the possibility of acoustical detection of ultra-high energy neutrinos. The proposed experiment involved using an underwater hydrophone array. I theoretically studied the acoustic pulse propagation in water from a particle shower and the optimal detection in the background noise. The experimental setup required extensive programming for a TI DSP processor and data acquisition and processing programming in LabVIEW. I also did some initial analysis and designed some of the analysis techniques on the data from an experiment involving 7 hydrophones. The experiment and analysis was completed after I left.
• January 2002 – November 2004: I looked for ultra-high energy neutrino cosmic-ray signatures in the data from Los Alamos National Laboratory FORTE satellite, using IDL programming language. In the summer of 2003, I participated in an experiment at Argonne National Laboratory looking for incoherent bremsstrahlung emission in the microwave range from electromagnetic particle showers. A paper with the analysis of of the data from this experiment and comparison with theoretical prediction is in preparation. In July 2004, a similar experiment was performed at SLAC, I worked on the analysis of its results.
• December 2004 – present: I work on theoretical study of ionospheric modification and ELF/VLF wave generation by HAARP, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGF) and other ionosphere and atmosphere phenomena at STAR Laboratory of the Stanford EE Department.
• 1994–2000: Advanced physics courses at Stanford University:
  • Advanced Gravitation (PHYS 364)
  • Elementary Particles Beyond the Standard Model (PHYS 352,452)
  • Quantum Field Theory (PHYS 330–332)
  • Non-equilibrium Phenomena in Condensed Matter (APPH 473)
  • Introduction to Atomic Processes (APPH 383)
  • Basic Plasma Physics (APPH 312)
  • Statistical Astrophysics (PHYS 463)
  • Electromagnetic Waves in Ionosphere (EE 352)
• 1994–2000: Teaching experience as a Teaching Assistant of Physics 20, 40 and 60 series for undergraduates, and a graduate Plasma Physics course (EE 356) at Stanford University.
• Member of AGU (since 1995), APS (since 1996).
• See also the publication list.

Computer Skills

• System Administration:
  DEC UNIX, Solaris, Mac OS.
• Programming:
  Extensive programming on a regular basis in C, C++, Fortran 77, MATLAB, Mathematica, LabVIEW, Python. Past programming experience in Java, Fortran 90/HPF, AppleScript, PERL, csh.
• Design:
  HTML, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Dimensions, GIMP, Inkscape.
• Other:
  TeX/LaTeX, MS Office; experience with the following OS's as a user (beside those listed above at Sys. Ad.): Windows 98 SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, Linux (on a single-user machine).

Other Skills

• Foreign language skills: Russian (native speaker), German (reading knowledge), Japanese (beginner).
• Other advanced courses at Stanford University:
  • Information Theory (EE 376)
  • Parallel Computing (CS 339)
  • Numerical Analysis: Boundary Value Problems (CS 237)
  • Financial Decisions/Corporate Finance (IE 235)

Awards

• 2005:
  URSI Young Scientist Award, XXVIIIth General Assembly of International Union of Radio Science (URSI) (New Dehli, India, October 23-29, 2005).
• 1999:
  1st Prize in Student Paper Competition, National Radio Science Meeting (University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA, January 4-8, 1999).
• 1997:
  2nd Prize in Student Paper Competition, IEEE AP-S International Sumposium and URSI North American Radio Science Meeting (The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, July 13-18, 1997).
• 1994:
  Diploma with Excellency from Nizhniy Novgorod State University, Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia (September 1994).

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