2023 Fall Student Symposium Keynote Speaker

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Aaron Coyner, Ph.D.

An Adaptive Journey through Space Science

Dr. Aaron Coyner is a solar physicist by trade and the physics and engineering faculty at Southwestern Oregon Community College. He is an avid amateur astronomer, and a proponent for lifelong science exploration. Dr. Coyner has research experience in granular physics in microgravity, solar physics, and space weather from his time as an undergraduate researcher at The University of Tulsa, his graduate work at Rice University and a three-year post-doctoral research term at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.  As a professor, he relies on making tangible connections with students through comparisons to everyday life or familiar references and strives to create hands-on research and innovation opportunities to drive students to further exploration. These activities include mentoring students in NASA OSGC SCORE projects in solar physics and other subjects; maintaining the SPEAR research group and serving as a faculty lead for Southwestern’s participation in the statewide Invent Oregon (InventOR) competition.

Throughout his scientific journey Dr. Coyner has worked with NASA and Space Grant Consortia from multiple states at multiple levels.  As a student and now a mentor, he looks to provide access to many of those students who may have been previously overlooked. His personal challenge with Cerebral Palsy gives a unique perspective to the concepts of equity and inclusion. Scientific research is an avenue for everyone to advance, and Dr. Coyner's main interest currently is lowering many of the barriers to entry and showing students at all levels that research success is attainable with the combination of hard work and support.