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A team of Rice researchers led by space plasma physicist Frank Toffoletto is among those at nine institutions receiving two years of NASA funding to develop a computer model that will enhance their ability to understand geomagnetic storms and forecast harmful space weather. The grant is part of NASA’s Diversity, Realize, Integrate, Venture, Educate (DRIVE) Science Centers initiative, which encourages collaborative research by establishing multi-institutional centers. The grants are the first phase of the program and fund the Center for Geospace Storms, based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. For the second phase, NASA will select one or two institutions to continue developing a model to simulate and predict the effects of solar storms. Toffoletto is a professor of physics and astronomy.