Craig Kletzing

Craig Kletzing
Born
Craig Allen Kletzing

(1958-02-03)February 3, 1958
DiedAugust 10, 2023(2023-08-10) (aged 65)
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (B.A.)
University of California, San Diego (M.S., Ph.D.)
Known forNASA Van Allen Probes mission (EMFISIS)
NASA TRACERS mission
SpouseJeanette Welch
AwardsFellow of the American Physical Society (2022)
Scientific career
FieldsPlasma physics, Space physics
ThesisAuroral electron time dispersion (1989)
Academic advisorsCarl E. McIlwain
Roy B. Torbert

Craig Allen Kletzing (February 3, 1958 – August 10, 2023) was an American plasma physicist and professor at the University of Iowa, known for his work in space plasmas and laboratory plasmas. He conducted pioneering work in kinetic Alfvén waves, developed instruments for various NASA missions, and taught college level physics.

Kletzing was a principal investigator of the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) unit aboard NASA's Van Allen Probes, and a co-investigator of the electric and magnetic Fields Suite aboard NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. In 2019, NASA selected to fund Kletzing's Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission proposal as part of the agency's Small Explorer Program.