Once involved with the plasma data analysis for the Apollo and Atmosphere Explorer missions, Pat was also a co-investigator (Co-I) on the Dynamics Explorer Mission. In addition, Pat is a Co-I on several current missions: the Magnetic Field Experiment on the "Polar" Spacecraft (launched February 24, 1996), Global Geospace Science Mission, IMAGE, and the "Peace" electron spectrometer on the European Space Agency's "Cluster II" 4-spacecraft mission (to be launched summer 2000).

Pat has served as project director for public education and teacher enhancement projects for more than 10 years. Her "Space Update" software has been used by over a million visitors at over 10 museums and hundreds of schools. She has over 70 refereed publications in journals and book sections, and has served as editor or associate editor for "EOS," "Journal of Geophysical Research," and "Reviews of Geophysics." She has served on advisory committees for the National Science Foundation, NASA, the National Academy of Science, the Association of American Universities, Goddard Space Flight Center, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. She is the Rice institutional representative for the Universities Space Research Association and serves on the Public Education Committee for the AGU.

With numerous awards to her name, including being named as one of Houston's "Women on the Move" in 1990, Pat was also named an "Outstanding Young Woman of America." She was elected to the Cosmos Club in 1992, was selected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1997, and received the "Aerospace Educator Award" from Women in Aerospace in 1999. She is listed in American Men and Women of Science and Who's Who. She is also active in the environmental community, and has served on the Board of the Citizens' Environmental Coalition for the past 18 years, including two terms as president.

In other public outreach activities, Pat was the principal technical advisor to the Cockrell Sundial and Parade of the Planets at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. She has guided numerous scientific tours, including the total solar eclipses in Canada in 1979, Mexico in 1991, Peru in 1994, Caribbean in 1998, and Black Sea in 1999, and a led a tour to view Comet Halley in Australia in 1986.