COSPAR 2020 Awards

William J. Borucki

Minor Planet (7864) Borucki

The Kepler mission, which is of fundamental importance for the understanding of our place in the universe, would not have come to fruition without the ingenuity and dedication of William Borucki. Early in his career, William had distinguished himself by building spectroscopic instrumentation to determine the plasma properties of hypervelocity shock waves. He developed photochemical models of the Earth's stratosphere and mesosphere to investigate the impact of nitric oxide and fluorocarbon emissions on ozone. He also investigated the optical efficiency of lightning and used these measurements in conjunction with spacecraft observations to deduce the production rate of prebiological molecules in planetary atmospheres. But detecting an 80 ppm dimming in a star is a daunting feat, and it took William and his team years to convince the scientific community that this was a feasible method for finding exoplanets. The resounding success of the resulting Kepler Mission has more than justified his efforts.

In his own words “Going from speculation to knowledge is what science is all about”, and William’s career is a testament to his contribution to Science. He is a worthy recipient of COSPAR’s Space Science Award.

Biography

William Borucki received a MSc in physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1962 and then moved to NASA Ames where he worked on the development of the heat shield for the Apollo Mission. After the successful Moon landings, he transferred to the Theoretical Studies Branch where he investigated lightning activity in planetary atmospheres and developed mathematical models to predict the effects of nitric oxides and chlorofluoromethanes on the Earth’s ozone layer. In 1982 he earned a MSc in meteorology from the California State University. In 1984, he began advocating the development of a space mission that could detect Earth-size planets and determine the frequency of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. In the succeeding years he developed the techniques required to find such small planets and demonstrated that the technology and analysis techniques were sufficiently mature to proceed to flight status. He served as the Science Principal Investigator for the Kepler Mission which discovered over 4600 planets and planetary candidates. It proved that most stars have planets and small Earth-size planets are common. Borucki retired in 2015 and is now a NASA Ames Associate.

Ken McCracken

Minor Planet (8258) McCracken

Dr. Ken McCracken began his career in space science at the University of Tasmania where he developed the four station Australian neutron monitor network for the International Geophysical Year 1957-8. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he developed the mathematics and digital computer code to trace the orbits of relativistic cosmic rays in the six-degree geomagnetic field, a technique still used today. His studies of the high energy solar proton events in 1960 demonstrated the validity of the Parker model of the heliospheric magnetic field. Moving to the University of Texas, Dr. McCracken was the principal investigator for cosmic ray anisotropy detectors flown on the interplanetary spacecraft Pioneers 6 through 9 and on earth-orbiting satellites Explorers 34 and 41. These six instruments gave a synoptic view of the radiation at all solar longitudes thereby elucidating the propagation and convection of both solar and galactic cosmic radiation. Returning to Australia in 1966, he established an X-ray astronomy programme using balloons and Skylark rockets launched from the Woomera rocket range. He and his colleagues established that some X-ray objects are strongly time variable. In 1969 he was appointed by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) to establish a laboratory “to apply space technologies to exploration for minerals under the deeply weathered Australian regolith”. He received the CSIRO medal for “Advances in Geophysics”, and was joint recipient of Australia’s most senior scientific award, the “Australia Prize” for this work. He was a member of the Australian Space Board, 1987-92. Retiring from government service, he has pioneered utilization of the discoveries of the space era in interpretation of ice cores dating 150,000 years into the past. With scientists from several countries he has extrapolated the heliospheric magnetic field and the terrestrial radiation environment throughout the Holocene and beyond. Dr. McCracken started his scientific career before the commencement of the space era. His research results over 60 years have been published in more than 100 refereed publications which are well cited by both his contemporaries and younger scientists. His unique multi-faceted career in cosmic ray and heliospheric research, X-ray astronomy, interplanetary archeology, plus his economically important application of space science and technology to mineral exploration makes him extremely well qualified to receive the COSPAR Space Science Award.

Biography

Ken McCracken was educated in Tasmania and has been a leader in space research ever since. He established an observatory in New Guinea for the International Geophysical Year 1957/8. In 1960 he used cosmic radiation observations and the then largest computer in the world to map the magnetic fields in space. He was the “principal investigator” for radiation instruments flown on four interplanetary “Pioneer” spacecraft to near Mars and Venus and two Earth orbiting “Explorer’ satellites. They provided our modern understanding of the flow of cosmic radiation in space and determined the danger to astronauts and communication satellites from radiation produced in large “solar flares”. Returning to Australia he and his students flew x-ray astronomy rockets from Woomera. CSIRO appointed him in 1970 to develop a research division “to apply the space technologies to modernise geophysical exploration for minerals in Australia”. In retirement, he and his wife, Gillian, operated a cattle raising property in the Southern Highlands of NSW. He continues to be deeply involved in space research with colleagues worldwide. Using space measurements and ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland, they have determined the Sun’s influence on space and Earth for the past 150,000 years, and to predict its future effects. His has been a most exciting and adventurous life in the exploration and utilisation of space.

John Kiss
Francisco Javier Medina

Minor Planet (8267) Kiss

Minor Planet (8333) Medina

Professor Dr. John Z. Kiss and Dr. F. Javier Medina have both been active in international spaceflight research for more than two decades during which they studied the growth and development of plants under microgravity in spaceflight. Both served as principal investigators for a joint spaceflight project named Seeding Growth (SG) where Kiss was funded by NASA and Medina by ESA and the Spanish National Research Agency to conduct studies on board the International Space Station. The major goals of the Seedling Growth program were to determine how gravity and light responses influence each other in plants and to better understand the cellular signaling mechanisms involved in plant tropisms and growth. This successful project was performed between March 2013 and July 2017, using combined American and European technology for the growth of plants in space. Learning how plants adapt to weightlessness and low-gravity environments is crucial in determining the ability of vegetation to provide a sustainable, dependable, and economical means for human life support in space. The ability of plants to provide a source of food and recycle carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen may prove vital for astronauts who will live in space for months at a time. Finally, in the long term, the new knowledge acquired should lead to significant advances in agriculture on Earth.

This International Cooperation Medal to Drs. Kiss and Medina recognizes their pioneering work in space plant sciences with a cooperative spirit at many levels among individuals, organizations, and space agencies. Their achievements epitomize the spirt of this Award, which is to promote people and groups to work together to achieve a common goal and derive mutual benefits in space research.

Biography - John Kiss

Dr. John Z. Kiss is the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and his academic appointment is as Professor of Biology. He had served as Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Mississippi from 2012-16. Dr. Kiss was on the faculty of Miami University (1993-2012) where he was a University Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Botany Department. He has mentored 60 independent research projects by undergraduates and has served as major professor for 14 M.S. students, 8 doctoral students, and 7 post-doctoral scholars.

The research of Dr. Kiss focuses on the gravitational and space biology of plants, and he has published 118 peer-reviewed papers. He also has been invited to present seminars based on his research at universities throughout the US and in another 12 countries. He served as PI on grants from NASA, USDA, NSF, and the NIH as well as PI on eight spaceflight experiments on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. In 2014, he received the NASA Outstanding Public Leadership Medal “for exceptional contributions in spaceflight research in the fundamental biology of plants in support of NASA’s exploration mission.”

Biography - Francisco Javier Medina

F. Javier Medina (Toledo, Spain, 1952) is a biologist working in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) on the cellular and molecular physiology of plants. Within space research he focuses on the adaptation of plants to the space environment, identifying physiological effects of altered gravity and counteracting mechanisms in order to enable the plant culture for human space exploration. He has led three projects conducted at the International Space Station (ISS), namely “Root” (2003), in the Cervantes Mission, the first European Plant Biology experiment in the ISS, “Genara” (2010), co-leading a Spanish-French team, and “Seedling Growth” (2011-2018). This was a joint NASA-ESA project comprising three experiments in different ISS increments, which has received the NASA Group Achievement Award. He has also participated and/or directed other international projects in terrestrial installations of altered gravity. The main findings were the functional alteration of the root meristem induced by microgravity, the gene expression reprogramming, the role of light in the mitigation of the gravitational stress and the positive root gravitropism at Mars gravity. He has published more than 130 papers and book chapters and acted as adviser to international research organizations. He has received the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) Medal.

Daniel McCleese

Minor Planet (5641) McCleese

Dr. Daniel J. McCleese is a pioneer in remote sensing of the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets. Since receiving his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1976, he has designed, built and flown orbiting, state-of-the-art, remote sounding instruments to profile atmospheric temperatures, aerosols, and constituents, with the ultimate goal of systematically characterizing the atmospheres of Earth, Venus and Mars. Pursuing his interest in the climates of the terrestrial planets, Dan proposed a small space mission to pursue the observations of the Martian atmosphere which led to NASA initiating a series of planetary missions, the first of which was Mars Observer. Dan’s instrument team built an atmospheric sounder that combined pressure modulation and filter radiometry to measure temperature, dust and water vapour in the Mars atmosphere using limb sounding. Space exploration is not for the faint-hearted. Mars Observer was lost in 1993 just before insertion into orbit around Mars. Dan’s instrument was selected for the next Mars mission which was also lost on orbit insertion. The loss of these missions caused NASA to revamp the Mars exploration strategy, and as the Chief Scientist for JPL’s Mars Exploration Program, Dan played a key role in its re-architecting.

Dan laid the scientific foundation which resulted in the Opportunity and Spirit rovers, Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Curiosity rover. These missions are a result of Dan’s tenacity and vision that have been his trademark throughout his career: 1) apply state-of-the-art instrumentation to the study of the planets, including Earth; 2) strive to assemble a systematic global planetary climatology — daily global coverage for seasonal and interannual periods; and 3) use these measurements to improve models. Despite setbacks, he persevered. His own instrument was launched in 2005, and its measurements continue today on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In various leadership roles, and as JPL’s Chief Scientist, Dan guided scientific pursuits that advanced the careers of over 300 Earth and planetary scientists and astrophysicists. An internationally known and respected researcher and leader, Dan pursues the goals of Earth and space science at national and international levels. His extraordinary achievements make Daniel J. McCleese a well-deserving recipient of the Nordberg Medal.

Biography

Dan McCleese is an atmospheric scientist and former Chief Scientist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Principal Investigator for the Mars Climate Sounder onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. His current research focuses on the weather and climate of Mars. While at JPL he was Director of JPL’s Innovation Foundry in which concepts for instruments and missions for Earth science, planetary science and astrophysics are conceived and matured. As Chief Scientist for JPL’s Mars Exploration Directorate he was a principal architect for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a multi-decade program dedicated to exploring the planet from rovers, landers and orbiters. Following his retirement from JPL in 2017 he founded Synoptic Science a space science and mission formulation consultancy. He is Chair of the Science Advisory Group for MethaneSAT, a mission affiliated with the Environmental Defense Fund’s program to measure methane from human sources worldwide. Dan is also Senior Project Manager for the Climate Modeling Alliance, a coalition of scientists, engineers and applied mathematicians from Caltech, MIT, the Naval Postgraduate School and JPL that is building an Earth system model that learns from observations from space and the ground for climate predictions. Dan received his doctorate in atmospheric physics from Oxford University.

Alexander Held

Minor Planet (8479) Held

Dr Alex Held is the first southern hemisphere winner of the COSPAR Massey Award, which reflects his pioneering contributions to Earth observation and the space sector in Australia and abroad. Since arriving in Australia and joining CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, in 1991, Dr Held has focused on the use of Earth observation data to improve scientific understanding in landscape ecology and vegetation condition. Dr Held led the award-winning delivery of the Sentinel Hotspots program (2002–2006), a national capability that continues to be widely used to support bushfire response activities in Australia. He has been instrumental in developing the OpenDataCube initiative, as a foundation partner, which now has over 50 DataCube implementations globally and partners including NASA. As a member of the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Space Science and the Steering Committee for the 2010-2019 Decadal Plan for Space Science, Dr Held has been an influential voice in the Australian Earth observation community. Currently Director of the CSIRO Centre for Earth Observation, Dr Held is overseeing the establishment of the new satellite NovaSAR-1 as a national research facility; this will make CSIRO’s ten per cent share in the UK radar satellite, with associated ground-segment, science program and user-engagement program, available to Australian researchers. In the international arena, Dr Held served as member of the steering committee of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs’ Program on Space Technology for Disaster Management in Southeast Asia (2004–2007) and, since 2017, has been a member of the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observation (GEO) Executive Committee and closely involved in the establishment of the Global Forest Observation Initiative, a flagship activity under GEO. He has been Chair of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and is now co-Chair of the CEOS Strategic Implementation Team (2019-2021).

Biography

Dr. Held is the research Director of the Centre for Observation Program in CSIRO’s Astronomy and Space Science unit, and an Associate Professor at the Australian National University. Alex has over 25 years experience in terrestrial remote sensing, and has lead several projects and research teams since then. His PhD is from the University of California, Davis in the area of plant physiology. Dr. Held has focused his work on designing ways for better use of satellite earth observation (EO) data in forestry, agriculture, disasters and ecosystem science. He also represents CSIRO at the inter-agency Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), that is designing future EO data architectures for global earth observation programs, as well as promoting the use of EO data for achieving sustainable development goals. He is an active delegate for Australia on the Group on Earth Observation (GEO).

Jean-Louis Fellous

Minor Planet (8617) Fellous

Jean-Louis Fellous has been thoroughly immersed in COSPAR since he delivered his first talk at a science conference, the COSPAR Scientific Assembly in Konstanz, Germany in 1973. In the ensuing years, he took part in and organized many Scientific Assemblies, serving 16 years as a COSPAR officer in Scientific Commission A. In 2008 Jean-Louis was appointed Executive Director, when Roger Bonnet was President, a period that culminated in the Scientific Assembly with the highest attendance, in Bremen in 2010. In Bremen Giovanni Bignami was elected President and delegated to Jean-Louis much responsibility for the operations and new initiatives, including the COSPAR Symposium and the launch of the new journal Life Sciences in Space Research (LSSR). At the Assembly in Moscow in 2014, Len Fisk was elected President, and together they entered into a particularly challenging period for COSPAR. The choice in Moscow of the site for the 2018 Assembly resulted in an initial selection of an unqualified bidder, and Jean-Louis had to coordinate an unprecedented revote by the Council and the selection of Pasadena for the Assembly in 2018. The Assembly in Istanbul scheduled for 2016 had to be cancelled, following waves of terrorism, diminishing attendance, and finally, a military coup. Jean-Louis had to arrange for the extraction from the cancelled Assembly and for all decisions and planning that were to take place at the Assembly to occur by correspondence. The Assembly in Pasadena in 2018 was a great success, new initiatives were taken (e.g., strategic seminar, new panels, newsletter) and with COSPAR no longer in a crisis mode, Jean-Louis could hand over his responsibilities to his worthy successor, Jean-Claude Worms.

Biography

An atmospheric scientist by training, Dr. Jean-Louis Fellous was program manager of the U.S.-French ocean satellite TOPEX-Poseidon launched in 1992. From 1994 to 1998 he promoted international cooperation in global change research between Europe and Africa through the creation of the MEDIAS network. Back at CNES he then led Earth Observation programs until 2001 and oceanic research at IFREMER until 2005. In mid-2005 Fellous was seconded to the European Space Agency as advisor on the program now known as Copernicus.

Among various international instances, Fellous chaired the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) in 1997, was co-president of JCOMM (the WMO/IOC Joint Commission on Oceanography and Marine Meteorology) from 2005 to 2009, and became the first ever CEOS Executive Officer in 2007.

Fellous’s involvement in COSPAR started in 1973, when he first attended a Scientific Assembly in Konstanz and continued uninterruptedly from 1988 until 2000 as Scientific Commission A Vice-Chair, then Chair, as Main Scientific Organizer of many events and Scientific Editor of several volumes of Advances in Space Research, organizer of a Capacity Building workshop and more. From January 2008 until end 2019, he served as Executive Director of COSPAR. During the course of twelve years Fellous worked successfully with three different Presidents, leaving a healthy COSPAR to his successor.

Photo credit: (ESA/J Mai)

Alexi Glover

Dr Alexi Glover is the Space Weather Service Coordinator within the European Space Agency’s Space Weather Office, part of the Space Safety Programme Office, located in Darmstadt, Germany. She is responsible for development and coordination of ESA’s network of space weather services which includes participation of approximately 40 research institutes and organisations from across Europe.

The domain of space weather has evolved substantially over the preceding two solar cycles, reflecting the increased need within society for reliable and timely space weather information and services. Throughout this period Dr Glover has been working at the forefront of space weather application and service development, with the aim to ensure that scientific advances in the space weather domain translate into improved information available for those in affected industries who need it, and in supporting the development of a vibrant and sustainable international space weather community with a strong scientific basis. These important challenges have led Dr Glover to take a key role in both European and international development activities.

Dr Glover served as chair of the COSPAR Panel on Space Weather between 2008-2016, co-writing the task description and participating in the development of the international COSPAR-ILWS Space Weather Roadmap. Currently she is co-moderator of the PSW International Space Weather Action Team’s overarching activity focussing on capability assessment. She also serves as vice-Chair of the COSPAR Capacity Building Panel, facilitating the organisation of COSPAR supported Capacity Building Workshops in space weather. To date she has collaborated on, and lectured at, workshops hosted in Asia, Europe and Latin America which have supported the training of approximately 100 students and young researchers from more than 25 different countries.

COSPAR and the Indian Space Research Organisation are truly honoured to award the Vikram Sarabhai Medal in 2020 to Dr Alexi Glover for her outstanding contributions to development activities in the field of Space Weather.

Biography

Alexi Glover is the Space Weather Service Coordinator within the European Space Agency’s Space Weather Office, part of the Space Safety Programme Office at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

Dr Glover is a solar physicist, obtaining her PhD from University College London in 2003. She has worked with space weather applications at ESA since 2001 and has a broad background in space weather science and effects on technologies including spacecraft systems. Her current role involves coordinating a network of more than 40 institutes and organisations from across Europe who collaborate to develop new capabilities and deliver reliable space weather information to a range of end users.

While chair of the COSPAR Panel on Space Weather, Dr Glover co-initiated the development of the COSPAR-ILWS roadmap for space weather science. She currently co-moderates the Panel’s team on performance assessment, which aims to build community wide consensus in facilitating the transition of research results to operations.

Dr Glover is an active member of COSPAR’s Panel on Capacity Building. To date she has collaborated on, and lectured at, space weather training workshops in Europe, Asia and Latin America. She is also vice-chair of the European Space Weather Week’s Programme Committee.

Wing-Huen Ip

Professor Wing-Huen Ip has made significant contributions to deep-space exploration, including comets and Outer Planets. In particular, his contribution to the CASSINI-Huygens mission was recognised as pioneering and non-replaceable. He is also a pioneer in the study of the interrelation of planetesimals with Uranus and Neptune in the early solar system and in satellite-ring-magnetosphere interaction.

Due to his significant achievements in planetary science and related missions, Professor Ip is a most worthy awardee of the 2020 CAS/COSPAR Jeoujang JAW Award.

Biography

Prof. Wing-Huen Ip received his PhD degree from UCSD in 1974 to be followed by working as postdoc researcher at the same school before moving to the Max-Planck-Instutut fur Aeronomie (now MPI fur Sonnensystemforschung) as staff scientist in 1978. He participated in several planetary exploration missions of ESA and NASA including Giotto, Deep Space 1, Galileo, Cassini-Huygen, and Rosetta. The joint NASA-ESA Cassini-Huygens mission was originally proposed as Project Cassini to ESA by Daniel Gautier of the Observatoire Meudon and Wing Ip in 1982. After returning to Taiwan in 1998 permanently, Prof. Ip had served as Dean of Science and Vice President of National Central University besides his teaching and research activity at the Institute of Astronomy. He is currently leading a research project on science education inTaiwan. He co-founded the Asia-Oceania Geosciences Society together with Prof. Ian Axford and Prof. Yosuke Kamide in 2003, and is currently Chair of its Regional Advisory Committee to promote regional cooperation. He is Academician of Academia Sinica, AGU Fellow, IAA Member, and received several awards including NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal (2009), Axford Medal of AOGS (2011), and the Kuiper Prize of AAS/DPS (2020).

Takatoshi Sakazaki

COSPAR Scientific Commission A

For his pioneering work in understanding the dynamics of the upper troposphere and stratosphere, through the combination of satellite observations and theoretical analysis, and in pursuing the implications of the upper-atmosphere tides on spatio-temporal variations in ozone abundance.

Biography

Takatoshi Sakazaki is an assistant professor at Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Japan.

He was born in Kyoto prefecture, Japan, in 1985. He got his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University in 2013.

After serving as a Japan Society of Promotion and Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral fellow at Kyoto University for three years (2013-2016) and at University of Hawai’i for two years (2016-2018), he joined the faculty of Kyoto University in April 2018. His research focuses are mainly on the diurnal cycle of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Using data from atmospheric radar and satellite measurements, he revealed the global and vertical structures of the diurnal cycle in temperature, winds and ozone, from the troposphere to the lower mesosphere. He has been also working on how the diurnal cycles in different fields and/or layers are connected to each other: e.g., the atmospheric tidal effects on diurnal cycle in stratospheric ozone, the dynamical effects of stratospheric tides on diurnal cycle in tropical rainfall. He is now expanding his interests to the short-term variability of the atmosphere in general, including atmospheric global free oscillations.

Michele T. Bannister

COSPAR Scientific Commission B

For significant progress in our understanding of the processes which form and control Trans-Neptunian Objects, and for the important contributions of her studies of 1l/’Oumuamua, the first interstellar object.

Biography

Dr Michele Bannister is a Rutherford Discovery Fellow and Lecturer in Astronomy at the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences | Te Kura Matū, University of Canterbury, in New Zealand. Her research investigates the formation and evolution of planetary systems, focussing on our Solar System and the characterisation of its minor-planet populations. She collaborates with international planetary missions in Europe and the USA, which seek to explore interstellar objects and worlds throughout the Solar System. After receiving her PhD in Astronomy at the Australian National University in 2014, Dr Bannister spent three years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Outer Solar Systems Origins Survey, at the University of Victoria and the National Research Council of Canada. Subsequently, she moved to Queen's University Belfast in the UK. There, she spent another three years as a postdoctoral research fellow, before moving back to New Zealand in 2020. Dr Bannister’s research was recognised in 2020 by the Royal Astronomical Society with their early-career Winton Award.

Takanori Nishiyama

COSPAR Scientific Commission C

For major contributions to studies on magnetospheric effect on the thermosphere/ionosphere and the middle atmosphere by multi-instrument observations from the space and the ground.

Biography

Takanori Nishiyama was born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan. In 2004, he enrolled at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics in 2008 and Doctor of Science in 2013. His thesis focused on coupling processes between the magnetosphere and the lower thermosphere/ionosphere via novel optical observations and data analysis. Using the REIMEI satellite and a ground-based EMCCD camera, he investigated the generation mechanisms and temporal/spatial characteristics of pulsating auroras. In 2013, he joined the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan. Since then his research interests have broadened to include coupling between the magnetosphere and the mesosphere/lower thermosphere. Using the Program of the Antarctic Syowa mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere/incoherent scatter (PANSY) radar, he investigated polar mesospheric winter echo (PMWE) to elucidate its mechanism that is expected to closely relate to energetic particle precipitations through the magnetosphere. He visited Syowa station (69.0°S, 39.6°E) in the Antarctic twice as part of Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE). For 14 months (November 2017 - January 2019), he served as a wintering scientist at Syowa station, where he led novel resonance scattering lidar observations.

Daniel B. Graham

COSPAR Scientific Commission D

For the investigation of magnetic reconnection using data from Cluster and Magnetospheric Multiscale.

Biography

Daniel began research at the University of Sydney, Australia. He worked on his PhD from 2009 to 2012. The title of his doctoral thesis was "Electromagnetic Strong Turbulence and Nonlinear Processes in the Solar Wind" (supervised by Prof. Iver H. Cairns). This work focused on numerical modelling of nonlinear processes associated with high-frequency Langmuir waves, and on observations of these waves by the two STEREO spacecraft in the solar wind.

In 2012 Daniel started a Postdoctoral fellowship at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) in Uppsala, Sweden. This researched focused on magnetic reconnection at Earth's magnetopause, using data from the four Cluster spacecraft. Since 2016 Daniel has remained a researcher at IRF and started with the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. He continues his research on topics such as electron transport and heating in magnetic reconnection, the role of waves in magnetic reconnection, and the properties of waves and nonlinear structures at the magnetopause and in the solar wind. Daniel is also involved in the calibration of electric field measurements onboard the MMS and Solar Orbiter missions.

Ildar Khabibullin

COSPAR Scientific Commission E

For major contribution to deciphering the historical high-energy activity of the supermassive black hole Sgr A* in the center of our Galaxy and insights into the physical processes of galactic collapsed objects.

Biography

Dr. Ildar Khabibullin received his M.S. (summa cum laude) from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (2012) and his PhD (2015) from the Space Research Institute (IKI) RAS in Moscow.

During his student and PhD times he received a number of awards and fellowships,

including the Medal of Russian Academy of Sciences for Physics and Astronomy students (2012).

In 2016, he joined the group led by Rashid Sunyaev at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching as a postdoc.

Since then he has been working on a broad variety of high energy astrophysical phenomena taking advantage of theoretical modelling, numerical simulations and analysis of the observational data from space-based X-ray observatories.

He is a member of the Russian SRG/eROSITA consortium and the IXPE Science Team and is actively working on developing science cases in support of the future X-ray, CMB and gamma-ray missions.

Giorgio Baiocco

COSPAR Scientific Commission F

For his important contributions in the use of a multifunctional approach in developing personal radiation shielding and monitoring of radiation environment against solar particle events during space travel.

Biography

Giorgio Baiocco has been active in research in biological effects of ionizing radiation since 2013, after a PhD and a first post-doc in the field of fundamental nuclear physics. During his work at the Physics Department, University of Pavia, Italy, where he currently holds a position as senior researcher, he has been studying the effects of space radiation on human health – a major limiting factor for manned deep-space exploration. Recently, he has been the PI of the PERSEO (PErsonal Radiation Shielding for intErplanetary missiOns) project, selected and funded by the Italian Space Agency. The project has led to the realization and successful test on board the International Space Station of the first prototype of a water-filled garment for use in a pressurized space habitat for personal protection of astronauts against solar particle events. In addition to studying innovating solutions for radiation shielding, among other topics of relevance he has been working on the effects of neutrons (generated by space radiation interacting with spacecraft walls or planetary atmosphere) and effects of space radiation on visual system activation. He has authored several publications in the field and carries out continuous teaching and dissemination activities about space radiation research.

Katharina Brinkert

COSPAR Scientific Commission G

For her contribution to ground-breaking photoelectrochemical experiments in reduced gravitation, demonstrating the potential of solar-assisted oxygen and fuel production for future, long-term, crewed space missions.

Biography

Dr. Katharina Brinkert is an Assistant Professor in Catalysis at the University of Warwick, UK, where she is interested in (photo-)electrocatalytic processes for chemical and fuel production in terrestrial and microgravity environments. Her research group focuses on the development and investigation of semiconductor-electrocatalyst systems which can electrochemically and sustainably convert earth-abundant feedstocks into value-added chemicals such as oxygen, and carbon- and nitrogen-containing molecules utilizing sunlight.

Katharina received her BSc degree in Chemistry from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, and her MSc degree in Chemistry for Renewable Energy from Uppsala University, Sweden. She carried out her degree project at the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis, Arizona State University, USA. Katharina obtained her PhD from Imperial College London in 2015, where she worked with Prof Bill Rutherford on nature’s water splitting enzyme, Photosystem II. Consecutively, Katharina received a Research Fellowship from the European Space Agency (ESTEC/Noordwijk, the Netherlands) for an independent research project on solar hydrogen production in microgravity environment. Following her work at ESA, Katharina received a Leopoldina Postdoctoral Scholarship to work with Prof. Harry B. Gray at the California Institute of Technology, where she developed new electrocatalytic materials for electrochemical ammonia production.

Vitali Müller

COSPAR Scientific Commission H

For leading the design, testing, calibration, and data processing of the first inter-satellite laser interferometer of the geodesy mission GRACE-FO which may also be applied to the future gravitational wave mission LISA.

Biography

Vitali Müller studied physics at the Leibniz University of Hanover, Germany, where he heard in his undergraduate courses for the first time about laser interferometers to measure distances changes, for instance, to detect gravitational waves with the LISA satellite mission.

At the Max-Planck-Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover, which focuses on the development of such interferometers for ground- and space-based detectors, he found his scientific home base. Vitali completed at the institute his bachelor, master and PhD thesis (2018, “Design Considerations for Future Geodesy Missions and for Space Laser Interferometry”), which all were related to optics, interferometry and gravimetry, mainly in the context of the GRACE Follow-On mission. This US-German satellite pair was launched in 2018 to map Earth’s gravity field, and is equipped with the first laser ranging interferometer (LRI) acting as technology demonstrator.

As PostDoc, he is currently involved in the data analysis of the LRI and in studies for laser interferometers in future missions, which will continue to help monitor mass variations on Earth from climate change, water cycle, seismic activity, among others.