Mario Acuña
Mario Acuña was an Argentine research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the Space Plasmas and Planetary Magnetospheres Branches, and then as a Senior Astrophysicist. He was a major pioneer in the field of planetary magnetism.
Biography
As a result of political unrest in Argentina, particularly in and around Universities, Dr. Acuña left Argentina and became a permanent resident of the United States of America. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 1994. He earned a B.A. degree in humanities and economics from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, an MSEE degree from the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán in 1967, and a Ph.D. in Space Physics from the Catholic University of America in 1974.Career
Positions held
Acuña was a principal investigator on magnetometer experiments flown on numerous missions over the years, from the Pioneer 11 Fluxgate Magnetometer Experiment in 1973 to the Mars Global Surveyor Magnetic Field Experiment in 1994, and the MESSENGER magnetometer.He was one of the leaders NASA delegation who visited Argentina in July 1987 to start the collaboration between NASA and CNIE.