David J. McComas has invented a variety of instruments and missions for space applications and holds six patents. He leads several missions to explore our solar system, as principal investigator for NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) Mission and as lead co-investigator for the Solar Wind Electron Proton Alpha Monitor (SWEPAM) instrument on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), among many others. He is an author of over 350 scientific papers and of 50 other publications covering a wide range of research in space physics, including solar wind, heliospheric, magnetospheric, cometary and planetary topics, as well as numerous space flight instruments and techniques. Dr. McComas is Assistant Vice President of the Space Science and Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute.