Evan is co-advised by Drs. Baker and Ruohoniemi and has been mentored by Dr. Lasse Clausen (former VT SuperDARN postdoctoral fellow). His research has benefited from interactions with scientists at the MIT Haystack Observatory and he acknowledges the guidance provided by Drs. Anthea Coster, John Foster, and Phil Erickson.

Evan is publishing his findings on the structuring of plasma in the high-latitude ionosphere during geomagnetic storms. He has obtained striking new views of the generation of Tongues of Ionization (ToI) and patches from Storm-Enhanced Density (SED) plumes by combining information on ionospheric plasma density from GPS satellite measurements with maps of plasma motion obtained with the SuperDARN HF radars. His papers include:

Thomas, E. G., J. B. H. Baker, J. M. Ruohoniemi, L. B. N. Clausen, A. J. Coster, J. C. Foster, and P. J. Erickson (2013), Direct observations of the role of convection electric field in the formation of a polar tongue of ionization from storm enhanced density, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 118, 1180–1189, doi:10.1002/jgra.50116.

Zhang, Q. -H., B.-C. Zhang, M. Lockwood, H.-Q. Hu, J. Moen, J. M. Ruohoniemi, E. G. Thomas, S.-R. Zhang, H.-G. Yang, R.-Y. Liu, K. A. McWilliams, and J. B. H. Baker (2013), Direct Observations of the Evolution of Polar Cap Ionization Patches, Science, 339, 1597-1600, doi:10.1123/science.1231487.