Dr. Christensen joined ASTRA in 2009. He previously held the position of chief scientist in the Civil Space division at Northrop-Grumman Space Technology. He completed a two year assignment with NOAA/NESDIS as their representative to the European Meteorological Satellite Organization, EUMETSAT in Darmstadt Germany. As an employee of The Aerospace Corporation he served as the Director of the Space Science and Applications Laboratory in El Segundo CA. He received the distinguished Trustees Award at the Aerospace Corporation for his scientific contributions. He is currently the Principle Investigator for the Global Ultraviolet Imager on the NASA TIMED satellite mission launched in December 2001. He obtained his Ph.D. for studies of bremstrahlung x-rays from electron precipitation in the aurora and the excitation of optical emissions. He has over 70 refereed publications.

Dr. Azeem leads research projects in Optical Remote Sensing and Space Climate studies funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA. His current research interests include mesospheric dynamics, cusp auroral dynamics, and terrestrial airglow and auroral measurements. He is a research scientist at Atmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates in San Antonio, TX. Prior to joining ASTRA in August 2009 he was an Associate Professor of Engineering Physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach FL. At Embry-Riddle he was the recipient of NSF’s prestigious Early CAREER award University’s Researcher of the Year award. He holds a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering and Space Sciences from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.