Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Vincent Ledvina of North Pole, Alaska

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Vincent Ledvina. Check out our conversation below.

Vincent, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
When I wake up in the morning, I have a habit of checking my phone for any news or important emails that came through overnight. Since Alaska is four hours behind the eastern timezone, I usually have some messages right away in the morning that I may need to attend to. Then, I’ll check space weather data and my social media.

Before leaving the house, I do my daily posts to Instagram, BlueSky, X, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Threads. It’s a lot, but each platform has slightly different audiences who all enjoy daily short-form aurora content. I do try to spice things up for each platform, so as I’m sipping a coffee, I’ll post some content to Facebook and Instagram. Those two audiences I am trying to sustain and build more this year.

After my brain has dethawed with my coffee, I’ll get dressed, pack my bag with whatever textbooks I need that day along with my laptop and some snacks, then head into Fairbanks for class. I live in North Pole, so my commute is only around 25 minutes to the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Vincent Ledvina. First and foremost, I am an aurora chaser and space weather enthusiast. Currently, I am a Space Physics Ph.D. student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) studying the aurora and how it is formed.

I saw my first northern lights display when I was four years old during the 2003 Halloween Storms. Growing up in Minnesota, I enjoyed camping with my family and exploring the outdoors. I discovered photography as a kid but really got serious about it in high school. I took my first aurora photo when I was 16 and moved to North Dakota to start a B.S. in Physics at the University of North Dakota (UND).

At that point, I was very passionate about aurora photography and the science of space weather. I was fortunate to secure a few internships while an undergrad, including with the NASA citizen science project Aurorasaurus and with the National Solar Observatory in Colorado. After I finally purchased a car during my junior year at UND, I could really explore the dark skies around campus and go out taking aurora photos. I earned the nickname “The Aurora Guy” on campus after one of my aurora photos was reposted by our campus’ Instagram page.

In 2022, I had an amazing opportunity to help with a NASA sounding rocket mission in Alaska. This is where I met my current Ph.D. advisor and saw my first “real” aurora – an amazing substorm right over my head in Fort Yukon where I was running science instruments. I knew then that I needed to move to Alaska and study the aurora at UAF.

I moved to Alaska that year and chased the aurora full time until starting an internship at an aerospace company in Los Angeles and graduate school in Fall 2023. Over the last couple years, my passions for aurora chasing and space science have afforded me some amazing experiences and opportunities. In 2024, I was invited to the White House to be sworn on the Space Weather Advisory Committee, the only federal advisory committee advising the White House on space weather-related topics. I started a tour company, The Aurora Guy LLC and with the help of my friend Maia Hartwigsen, we gave aurora tours to hundreds of visitors last season. While in India in May 2024, I witnessed the aurora from the Himalayas, a rare view from an extremely equatorward magnetic latitude. I also launched an email list that now has over 30,000 subscribers and wrote a free e-book, “A Beginner’s Guide to Aurora Chasing” which has over 10,000 downloads.

Looking forward, I’m excited to graduate with my Ph.D. in 2028 and continue to run tours and photography workshops in Fairbanks. I am now working on a new book on aurora chasing in collaboration with scientists around the world, hoping to be published in Spring 2026.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
In March 2022, I traveled to Fort Yukon, Alaska to help with ground operations for a NASA sounding rocket mission. I was an undergraduate physics student at the time and extremely lucky and grateful to have been given the opportunity. I spent three weeks at an Air Force Long Range Radar SIte operating specialized aurora cameras. Since this was pre-Starlink, there was no cell service or reliable internet while I was there. While in Fort Yukon, I experienced truly amazing auroral displays that blew me away. A life-changing moment occured on March 5, 2022 when an extremely bright aurora danced for nearly an hour all around me. Large, green swirling aurora moved from horizon to horizon and cast shadows on ground objects. Seeing that auroral display convinced me I needed to move to Alaska and pursue my passion for aurora chasing in whatever way possible. That night, we also launched the sounding rocket into the aurora, and the mission was a success. To this day, I have only seen a few more beautiful auroral displays, but that night in March 2022 remains the most connected I have ever felt with nature and the universe. I hope everyone is able to experience the feeling of being completely consumed and overwhelmed with the beauty of our natural world.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
“If it seems hard, it’s probably worth doing.”

Maybe it’s because of my perspective as a graduate student from long nights of homework and paper-writing, but the experiences that may end up shaping your career, perspective, or goals likely will not be easy to complete or take considerable effort. I am a fairly risk-adverse person but say “Yes” to many more opportunities than I did in the past. I think that pushing a little harder earlier in life may have given me additional wisdom and perspective to achieve an even higher level of self-actualization than I have now.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes! I make it a point to share as much about my personal and work life with my audience as I can. I want people to connect with my work – my images, videos, and educational posts – but I love sharing what life as “The Aurora Guy” actually looks like. This includes long nights doing homework for graduate school, exciting travel opportunities to present research results at conferences, and the little hobbies that keep me well-rounded. While I am passionate about space weather, I am also a huge Green Bay Packers fan and play in multiple fantasy football leagues every year. I’m also a foodie, I build computers, and I am passionate about investing and following finance-related news.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
Hopefully, it won’t take 7-10 more years, but my Ph.D. in Space Physics will certainly take some time to complete from now. I hope to graduate in 2028, and my Thesis will focus on the physics of auroral substorm onset, specifically on a type of aurora called “beads.” Every day, I learn a little bit more about the aurora and space weather that makes it easier to teach others, but actually defending my Thesis and receiving my degree will be extremely gratifying and open up new doors for me.

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