Glesener grew up near Lake Superior.[1] After Glesener graduated from high school she worked briefly as a ballet dancer.[2] Glesener completed her bachelor's degree at San Francisco State University, graduating in 2006.[3] She joined the University of California, Berkeley for her graduate studies, earning a Masters in 2009 and a PhD in 2012. Her thesis, Faint Coronal Hard X-rays From Accelerated Electrons in Solar Flares, was supervised by Robert Lin and Säm Krucker.[4][5] Whilst a PhD student she wrote for the Berkeley Science Review.[6] For her thesis she was awarded the Tomkins Instrumentation Thesis Prize from the Royal Astronomical Society.[7] Her graduate work focussed on building a payload known as the FOXSI Sounding Rocket.[8]
Glesener is the PI of the FOXSI Sounding Rocket.[10][11] FOXSI detects Hard X-rays which are a signature of extraordinarily hot solar material.[12] The rocket payload flew in 2014, using a Solar Aspect and Alignment System and Hard X-rays Spectroscopy to obtain focussed images of the sun.[13] She also works on small CubeSats.[1][10] In 2017 Glesener identified that nanoflares (small explosions) in the plasma of the sun may cause the scalding temperatures in the solar corona.[14]
In 2018 she was awarded an NSF Career Award, allowing her to link high-energy solar and astrophysics.[15][16] FOXSI 3 launched on August 21, 2018.[17] Glesener wants to identify how particles are accelerated in the most high-energy events that occur in the sun, including explosions, flares and plasma ejections.[18]
