Bio
Capt Rodney Carmona is an Instructor in the Department of Physics and Meteorology at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Capt Carmona was commissioned through the Air Force OTS program in 2017. He has an undergraduate physics degree from Chicago State University, and a graduate degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology. In his first assignment, at NASIC, he researched and monitored new space technologies to prevent technology transfer to adversaries.
After his Masters at AFIT, Capt Carmona then served as an Electromagnet Physicist at AFRL High Energy Research and Technology Facility developing microwave experiments. As the project ended Capt Carmona applied to be the Chief of Atmosphere & Solar Terrestrial Impacts Section. There he supported research on Space Weather projects for Solar and Ionospheric science. Following this, he took over as Dep Branch Chief for the Geospace Environment Impacts and Applications Branch, leading laser weapon R&D to integrate and demonstrate laser weapons supporting future warfighter needs where he supported 9 different research teams.
At Air Force Research Laboratory, he served two 6-month tours once for JSOC as a Chief of current operations for EOP, and a second time as a Special Projects Officer for the AFCENT Commanders Action Group.
Education
Master of Science, Applied Physics, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio (2021)
Bachelor of Science, Physics, Chiago State University, Chicago, Illinois (2014)
Professional Experience
Deputy Chief, Geospace Environment Impacts and Applications Branch Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico (2022-2024)
Chief, Atm Chief, Atmosphere & Solar Terrestrial Impacts Section, Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico (2021-2022)
High Power Electromagnet Physicist, Directed Energy Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico (2021)
AFIT Master’s Student, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (2019-2021)
Force Modernization Analyst, National Air & Space Intelligence Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio (2018)
Technology Transfer Analyst, National Air & Space Intelligence Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio (2017)
Deployments
Special Projects Officer, AFCENT Commanders Action Group, Al Udeid Base, Qatar (2023)
Chief of Current Operations, External Operations Platform, Joint Training Center, Jordan (2022)
Honors & Awards
Joint Service Commendation Medal
Air Force Commendation Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters
Air Force Achievement Medal
Research and Scholarly Interests
Computational Physics
Space Physics and Space Weather
Publications
Carmona, R. A., Nava, O. A., Dao, E. V., & Emmons, D. J. (2022). A comparison of sporadic-E occurrence rates using GPS radio occultation and ionosonde measurements. Remote Sensing, 14(3), 581.
Dugan, C. L., Young, C., Carmona, R., Schneider, M., Petrosky, J. C., Mann&, J., … & McClory, J. W. (2018). The Debye Temperature of a Single Crystal Thorium–Uranium Dioxide Alloy. physica status solidi (RRL)–Rapid Research Letters, 12(12), 1800436.
Tyler, M., Carmona, R., Harton, A., Garcia, E., Soltz, R., & Alice Collaboration. (2013, October). Strangeness Production in Jets with ALICE at the LHC. In APS Division of Nuclear Physics Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 2013, pp. EA-052).
Harton, A., Carmona, R., Tyler, M., & Soltz, R. (2013). Strangeness Production in ALICE at the LHC (No. LLNL-TR-643814). Lawrence Livermore National Lab.(LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States).
Carmona, R., & Soltz, R. (2013). Lambda and Anti-Lambda production in the ALICE experiment at the LHC (No. LLNL-TR-643836). Lawrence Livermore National Lab.(LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States).
Komarov, M., Boston, B., Carmona, R., Leon, E., Sabella, M., & Garcia-Solis, E. (2013, March). Incorporating Ideas from Detector Physics into the Physics Curriculum: from HS to College. In APS March Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 2013, pp. C38-015).