Capt Sophia Schwalbe is the Section Chief, Magnetospheric Impacts Section and the Program Manager for a passive HF receiver instrument at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. She is responsible for the development, testing, and transition of the Sounder Receiver (SORcer) instrument, and is responsible for a team of 17 scientists and engineers that are on the forefront of magnetosphere research.

Capt Schwalbe received her commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in May 2017 after graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Space Physics through Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Prescott. She went on to receive a Master’s of Science and a PhD in Applied Physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Her PhD was in modeling the response of the ionosphere to solar flares.

Capt Schwalbe has participated in many high-visibility scientific experiments to date, including the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX), and multiple field experiments at AFRL.