Congratulations to Mike Lockwood, who has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society's Gold Medal in geophysics. The Gold Medal is the highest award in the society's gift, and is awarded as recognition of a lifetime's work. The society's announcement says:
Prof. Lockwood is one of the most eminent researchers today in space physics. He has made defining contributions in several different fields, from the ionosphere, via the magnetosphere and the heliosphere, to the Sun and its influence on the Earth's climate. Among the highlights of his broad career are his early discovery of a 'fountain' of ions populating the polar magnetosphere from the ionosphere. Thereafter, his novel analysis using ground-based radar combined with space-based particle measurements yielded new quantitative insights into magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause. This helped to illuminate how this most fundamental of plasma processes operates.
His most recent work has focused on the impact of the variable solar output on the heliosphere and the Earth's climate, including founding a new field of study of the long-term variability of the Sun's magnetic field. Quite remarkable is the fact that this now vibrant research area arose from Prof. Lockwood's very first paper in solar physics, reporting that the Sun's coronal magnetic has doubled in the last 100 years. Throughout his career, Prof. Lockwood has provided novel and far-reaching insights that have subsequently become accepted paradigms, and paved the way for further study.
Sincere congratulations are also due to our colleague in the UK Solar Physics community, Alan Hood, who has been awarded the RAS's Chapman medal for investigations of outstanding merit in solar-terrestrial physics.
Further information about all of this year's medal and award winners is available on the Royal Astronomical Society's web site.
Work by three members of the MIST community (and international collaborators) has been published in the latest edition of Science. The study used data from the European Space Agency's Cluster spacecraft and NASA's IMAGE satellite to reveal the physical processes which cause a type of auroral display called the "theta aurora".
Further information is available in the European Space Agency press release.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has launched a consultation exercise on "Proposals for
Long-Term Capital Investment in Science & Research". Anyone is welcome to contribute to the consultation exercise at an individual level and coordinated responses are being created from various organisations including MIST via MIST council and the SSAP (Solar Systems Advisory Panel from STFC).
You can see the documentation here:
You can put in your response here:
The consultation closes on 4th July 2014.
Mike Hapgood has stepped down from MIST Council after serving the maximum two terms that are allowed by the MIST Charter. We would very much like to express our thanks to Mike for his dedicated service on MIST Council since it was formed in 2007, and for being an excellent chair.
Jonny Rae has been elected and Rob Fear has been re-elected to MIST Council for the next three years; they will join Emma Woodfield, Mario Bisi and Ian McCrea who remain on MIST Council. Ian will take over as the new chair.
Congratulations to several members of the MIST community who have been awarded RAS prizes this year: