Tomczyk is an astronomer whose main interests are observing solar oscillations and developing instrumentation and techniques for studying magnetic fields in the Sun's photosphere and corona. He led the development of CoMP, a coronal multichannel polarimeter that has captured landmark images of magnetic structures in the solar atmosphere and is providing critical data on magnetic structures in the solar corona. Using CoMP, Tomczk and colleagues have been able, for the first time, to observe Alfvén waves, which transport energy outward from the surface of the Sun – a discovery that can give researchers more insight into the fundamental behavior of solar magnetic fields.
