I’m currently an assistant professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver in the Aviation and Aerospace Science (AAS) Department. My latest research focus is on training undergraduate students in mission systems design principles via NASA and NOAA mission profiles. On the side I still contract on science missions in need of nuclear spectroscopy expertise (e.g., Lunar-VISE) through my LLC and serve on NASA/NSF science committees, such as SPARX.
I am a calibration and science co-I on the commercial lunar payload, Lunar-VISE mission’s gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, LV-GRNS and a continued team member on NASA LunaH-Map.
If you are an undergraduate student at MSU interested in doing science research and going to graduate school, please send me an email (leheffern@msudenver.edu) with your resume; I may have funded or unfunded projects that you can get involved with. Only contact me if you can dedicate 50 hours a semester to research.
Projects I’ve worked on: