01/06/2026
By Anna Belehaki, Dieter Bilitza, Paul Cannon, Phil Erickson, Ivan Galkin, James Green and Paul Song

It is our sad duty to report that Bodo W. Reinisch, Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, passed away on Dec. 16, 2025, at the age of 89.

Reinisch dedicated 45 years of his work to the University of Massachusetts Lowell where he served as Professor and Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department and later as Professor in the Atmospheric Sciences Department. In 1975 he founded the Center for Atmospheric Research (now Space Science Laboratory) at UML and served as its director until 2010. Students and early career scientists will sorely miss their trusted advisor - not only of the thesis, but also their life in general. Their Professor worked tirelessly to help them succeed, up to the last months of his life.

Reinisch was an influential figure in both ionospheric physics and radio science and made a number of seminal contributions. Perhaps best known is the development of a network of radio sounder systems which constantly monitor global ionospheric conditions. Over 200 units have been built in Lowell, Massachusetts for installation in 32 countries, and these have become an integral part of ionospheric scientific research. Reinisch was also the principal force behind the development of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) climatology model and, its real-time extension, the IRI-based Real-Time Assimilative Model (IRTAM). The latter provides real-time global nowcasts of ionospheric weather for science, national security and business operations. Subsequently, Bodo drew on his knowledge of ground-based radio sounding technologies to lead the team which successfully designed and launched the Radio Plasma Imager on NASA’s IMAGE satellite. He also led the development of the high-power, high-voltage VLF transmitter for the U.S. Air Force DSX mission which was eventually successfully launched 2019.

In recognition of his outstanding scientific contributions, Reinisch received numerous honors, including the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Appleton Prize (2011), with the citation “For revolutionizing radio sounding from ground and space”; the Officer’s Cross of Merit First Class of the Federal Republic of Germany (2012); and the Kristian Birkeland Medal for Space Weather and Space Climate (2014).

Bodo’s life was strongly influenced by his childhood experiences in Germany and he worked tirelessly to develop international communities that could both address important scientific questions and also learn that all peoples benefit by working together – not against each other. In so doing he touched the lives of many of us, inspiring as he did generations of researchers whose careers would not have been so successful without him.

Reinisch profoundly shaped the field of radio remote sensing of space plasmas and model development, and his passing is a major loss to the entire ionospheric science and radio science community. We have lost a giant in our field – but more particularly we have lost an inspirational friend.

Arrangements for a memorial service are planned for next spring.