Robert Peter Bukata received his doctorate in physics and mathematical physics in 1964 from the University of Manitoba where he devised a pair of bidirectional, mutually perpendicular, high-energy particle telescopes rotating in opposition to the Earth’s rotation to discover a source of very high energy galactic radiation in the constellation Aquila. He spent 7 years on the faculty of the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies in Dallas, Texas, as coprincipal investigator of cosmic ray studies aboard the NASA deep-space probe missions Pioneers 6 through 10 and the Earth-orbiting satellites Explorers 35 and 41. His Dallas team’s Pioneer cosmic ray sensors (monitored by NASA throughout its lunar missions to ensure that Apollo launch schedules would not coincide with space radiation hazards to astronauts) were the first to observe directly the abundance of solar flares generated during the least active segment of the 11-year solar cycle. He and his colleagues utilized in situ measurements of the anisotropies in direction arrivals of solar proton and alpha particles at the suite of solar-orbiting Pioneer probes to conceptualize a filamentary microstructure model for the interplanetary magnetic field and to provide fundamental information on electrodynamic processes (solar flares; “behind the sun” solar activity; M-region magnetic storms; energetic storm particle events; corotating Forbush decreases; modulation of galactic radiation) that govern propagation of solar particles within the inner solar cavity. He also utilized high-altitude balloons and the worldwide ground-based neutron monitor network to explain production and behavior of secondary cosmic radiation within the Earth’s atmosphere.
