Contact: Prof. James McLaughlin

This research group forms part of the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering. and part of the wider 'Space' research theme across the University, i.e. www.northumbria.ac.uk/space 

• Dr. Patrick Antolin
• Dr. Sarah Bentley
• Dr. Shaun Bloomfield
• Dr. Gert Botha
• Dr. John Coxon (STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow)
• Dr. Luca Franci (Royal Society University Research Fellow)
• Dr. Charlotte Goetz
• Dr. Natasha Jeffrey
• Dr Oleg Kirillov
• Prof. James McLaughlin
• Dr Henrik Melin (STFC James Webb Fellow) 
• Dr. Richard Morton (UKRI Future Leader Fellow) 
• Prof. Jonathan Rae
• Dr. Daniel Ratliff
• Dr. Stephane Regnier
• Prof. Eamon Scullion
• Dr. Andy Smith (NERC Independent Research Fellow)
• Prof. Tom Stallard
• Dr. Julia Stawarz (Royal Society University Research Fellow)
• Dr. Matthew Townson
• Prof. Clare Watt
• Prof. Robert Wicks
• Prof. Graham Wynn
• Dr. Stephanie Yardley (STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow)

• Fiona Hackney (NUdata Centre for Doctoral Training Manager)
• Alex Tempest (IT Service Delivery Technician for the Solar and Space Physics research group)

Research Fellows

• Dr. Jeffersson Agudelo
• Dr. Suman Chakraborty
• Dr. Tim Duckenfield
• Dr. Nassima Khorchef
• Dr. Ahmad Lalti
• Dr. Biswajit Ojha
• Dr. Ross Pallister
• Dr. Amna Riaz
• Dr. Luiz Schiavo
• Dr. Rahul Sharma
• Dr. Ansu Sun
• Dr. Edris Tajfirouzeh
• Dr. Emma Thomas

Visiting Fellows

• Prof. Ian Mann (Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellow)
• Prof. Peter Young (Visiting Professor)
• Prof. Valentina Zharkova (Emerita Professor)
• Dr. Ruhann Steyn (North-West University, South Africa)

PhD students

• Mr Adam Toulson (PhD student working with Daniel Ratliff)
• Mr Atlas Patrick (PhD student working with John Coxon)
• Mr Daniel Roll  (PhD student working with Prof Lok)
• Ms Dovile Rasinskaite (PhD student working with Clare Watt, Sarah Bentley and Jonathan Rae)
• Mr Dylan Weston (PhD student working with Jonathan Rae)
• Ms Emily Grant (PhD student working with Clare Watt)
• Ms Ishbel Wright (PhD student working with Jonathan Rae)
• Mr Harry Birch (PhD student working with Stephane Regnier)
• Ms Hemanthi Miriyala (PhD student working with Richard Morton)
• Mr Jordan Talbot (PhD student working with James McLaughlin and Gert Botha)
• Ms Katie Knowles (PhD student working with Tom Stallard)
• Ms Kendra Gilmore (PhD student working with Sarah Bentley)
• Mr Lewis Dean (PhD student working with Stephane Regnier)
• Mr Luis Guzman (PhD student working with Clare Watt)
• Mr Luke McMullan (PhD student working with Patrick Antolin)
• Ms Maria Hasler (PhD student working with John Coxon)
• Mr Matthew Billcliff (PhD student working with Andy Smith)
• Mr Matthis Houles (PhD student working with Andy Smith)
• Ms Nikita Balodhi (PhD student working with Patrick Antolin and Richard Morton)
• Ms Paloma Jol (PhD student working with Shaun Bloomfield)
• Ms Paola Tiranti (PhD student working with Henrik Melin)
• Ms Paulina Pilapaña (PhD student working with Julia Stawarz)
• Mr Ruben Doyle-Morgan (PhD student working with Charlotte Goetz)
• Mr Ryan Smith (PhD student working with James McLaughlin)
• Mr Samuel Carter (PhD student working with Natasha Jeffrey)
• Mr Samuel Hor (PhD student working with Patrick Antolin)
• Ms Shannon Killey (PhD student working with Jonathan Rae, Sarah Bentley and Clare Watt)
• Mr Shivdev Turkay (PhD student working with Eamon Scullion
• Ms Sian Ford (PhD student working with Graham Wynn)
• Mr Stephen Bannister (PhD student working with Shaun Bloomfield)
• Mr Utsav Panchal (PhD student working with Robert Wicks)
• Mr Vincent Briat (PhD student working with Jonny Rae)
• Mr Vishal Singh (PhD student working with Gert Botha)
• Mr Yash Saneshwar (PhD student working with Eamon Scullion)
• Mr Zach Wilson (PhD student working with Craig Warren)

We lead an STFC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science, called NUdata, which is a collaboration between Northumbria and Newcastle Universities, STFC, and a portfolio of over 40 industrial partners, including SMEs, large/multinational companies, Government and not-for profit organisations, and international humanitarian organisations. Together, the two Universities cover a broad range of STFC science, from planets to cosmology. The consortium will train a new generation of PhD students with the skills required to address the data challenges presented by the STFC core-science programme, as well as applying those skills to different sectors of the broader economy. This will be done in an environment that is inclusive and values contributions to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at all levels.

You can find out details of the Centre for Doctoral Training at https://research.northumbria.ac.uk/nudata/ including details of our 40+ industry partners.

The Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering has recently been successful with significant funding for space technology research from the UK Space Agency, the Science and Technology Facilities Council, Lockheed Martin, and the Office for Students. Therefore, we are now making a significant strategic investment to hire staff into key areas to enhance and expand our expertise in space-related technology. This strategic investment provides the opportunity for multiple appointments across multiple academic grades, including the potential to establish a small research group.

We are about to finish building and start commissioning the new Northumbria Space Technology Laboratory, which includes all of the state of the art facilities needed for environmental testing of small payloads for space as well as a dark room for class-4 lasers and optical system testing. We have a vibration shaker, an X-ray dose chamber and (arriving in January) a thermal vacuum chamber, all suitable for launch and low Earth orbit testing. We are seeking staff to use this facility to bring space instrumentation development and technology innovation that links to our existing areas of research excellence in the Faculty. That means: aurora, cameras, climate monitoring, comets, the cryosphere, geography, hyperspectral imagery, LIDAR, machine learning and AI, optical communication, outer planets, photovoltaics, sensors (IR, UV, visible) solar physics, space plasma, space weather, spectroscopy, telescopes.

See www.northumbria.ac.uk/NESST for further details.

Examples of recent successes:

• Northumbria University announces £50m space skills, research and development centre set to transform the UK space industry
• Telescope reveals unexpected activity above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
• Mystery of ‘slow’ solar wind unveiled by Solar Orbiter mission
• Telescope to provide insight into Solar System lightshows
• Solar physicist honoured by Royal Astronomical Society
• Northumbria University preparing for satellite launch after £5m boost for satellite communications research
• £1.29 million funding boost for solar scientists
• Unveiling Jupiter’s upper atmosphere
• Northumbria University and Lockheed Martin detect nanojets with machine learning algorithms
• Scientists are using deepfake AI images to understand the Sun’s atmosphere
• Solar astronomers discover ‘shooting stars’ on the Sun’s corona
• Artificial intelligence used to predict space weather
• Lockheed Martin and Northumbria University join forces to support the development of space skills, research and technology
• North East satellite partnership expected to boost UK’s share of global space market
• UK Space Agency funds further research into new laser-based satellite communications system
• Minister for Science, Research and Innovation opens £2million investment in region’s Engineering and Environment students

The group’s recent research achievements include the discovery of coronal reconnection nanojets (Antolin et al., 2021, Nature Astronomy, 5, 54), revealing the source of Jupiter’s x-ray auroral flares (Yao et al., 2021, Science Advances, 7, 28), creating global maps of the solar magnetic field (Yang et al., 2020, Science, 368, 694), and uncovering a basal contribution from p-modes to the Alfvénic wave flux in the Sun’s atmosphere (Morton, Weberg & McLaughlin, 2019, Nature Astronomy, 3, 223).

To view research papers emanating from this group, please click here to view Northumbria Research Link, our open access repository of research output from Northumbria University.