Seth Dorfman maintains a broad interest in fundamental plasma physics, including the use of laboratory experiments and satellite observations to explore key physical processes in our Sun-Earth system. His recent work at UCLA includes the first laboratory observation of a sheer Alfvén wave parametric instability as well as the first satellite measurement of the the Ultra Low Frequency wave growth rate in the Earth's ion foreshock. Dr. Dorfman received his PhD from Princeton University, where he found that 3-D physics was required to explain impulsive magnetic reconnection events observed in a laboratory experiment.