from the ionosphere to the sun The Institute for Scientific
Research was established in 1954, when Professor Rene Marcou of
the Mathematics Department was awarded a $5000 contract from the
Air Force to map the ionosphere and its effect on radio waves.
This funding was the first government sponsored research grant
for Boston College. The grant was used to define algorithms to
study some of the very first ionospheric measurements made by
some of the early rocket sensors. In the years that followed,
more research grants were made to this department to continue
Professor Marcou's early work. Much of this was fueled by
America's race to catch up with the Russians in space research.
In fact, the institute was involved in analyzing some of the
earliest satellite measurements from Sputnik and the US Explorer
satellites that followed Sputnik. Over the years, the Institute
had several name changes to reflect the ever changing nature of
our studies. For Ionospheric Research to Space Data Analysis and
then, since we did