Louise Harra is a

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, born in

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly southwest of Belfast. The town is linked to Belfast by both the M1 motorway (Northern Ireland), M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin rail ...

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. She is the Director of the World Radiation Centre of the Physical Meteorological Observatory in Davos (PMOD/WRC) and affiliated professor at the Institute of Particle Physics and Astrophysics of

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

Education

Louise Harra was born in

, and she attended later

Banbridge Academy Banbridge Academy is a grammar school in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, founded in 1786. , the Principal is Robin McLoughlin, previously a headmaster of Grosvenor Grammar School. McLoughlin succeeded Raymond Pollock (1995-2014). Former headmaste ...

. She graduated from

The Queen's University of Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is St ...

with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Maths and Physics and a PhD in Physics.

Academic career and research interests

She was a professor of

solar physics Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics and astrophysics. Because the Sun is uniquely situated for close-range observing (other stars cannot be re ...

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Mullard Space Science Laboratory The UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) is the United Kingdom's largest university space research group. MSSL is part of the Department of Space and Climate Physics at University College London (UCL), one of the first universities in th ...

until 2019, with much of her career being involved in space instruments. She was principal investigator (PI) of the EUV Imaging Spectrometer instrument on the Hinode spacecraft from 2006 to 2019. She is co-PI of the

Solar Orbiter The Solar Orbiter (SolO) is a Sun-observing probe developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contribution. Solar Orbiter, designed to obtain detailed measurements of the inner heli ...

EUV Imager. In 2019 she moved to take on the position of director at PMOD/WRC and affiliated professor at ETH Zurich. Harra's research interests include

solar flare A solar flare is a relatively intense, localized emission of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and ot ...

s and

coronal mass ejection A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a significant ejection of plasma mass from the Sun's corona into the heliosphere. CMEs are often associated with solar flares and other forms of solar activity, but a broadly accepted theoretical understandin ...

s, formation of the

solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the Sun's outermost atmospheric layer, the Stellar corona, corona. This Plasma (physics), plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy betwee ...

and Sun-Earth connection. Her research makes use of spectroscopic and imaging observations to quantify the characteristics and behaviour of solar flares and the solar wind.

Space missions

Harra has been involved in a number of space missions in her career. These include: *The Japanese/US/UK space mission

Yohkoh Yohkoh (, 'Sunbeam'), known before launch as Solar-A, was a Solar observatory spacecraft of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (Japan), in collaboration with space agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was l ...

, Instrument Scientist based in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. *The JAXA/NASA/UK/ESA mission Hinode, Principal Investigator of the EUV Imaging Spectrometer. *The ESA/NASA

mission, co-Principal Investigator for the EUV Imager.

Media

Harra has given radio and TV interviews. These include: *2014 Radio 4, 'In our time' interview with

Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg (born 6 October 1939) is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is the editor and presenter of ''The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010, 2012–2023), and the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 documentary series ...

*2014

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

Science Show with

Robyn Williams Robyn Williams (born 30 January 1944) is a British/Australian science journalist and broadcaster who has hosted ''The Science Show'' on ABC Radio National (RN) since 1975, and created ''Ockham's Razor'' in 1984. Early life and education W ...

Awards

*2023:Institute of Physics Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and Prize. *2017: Robinson medal presented by Armagh Observatory. *2016: Daiwa-Adrian prize for UK-Japan research. *2015: RAS group achievement award for the Hinode EIS instrument. *2014: The

Sir Arthur Clarke Award The Sir Arthur Clarke Award is a British award given annually since 2005 in recognition of notable contributions to Outer space, space exploration, particularly British achievements. The awards are presented by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, a ...

, Space Achievement (Academic Study/Research) for her leadership in the UK and internationally of the exploitation of data from the Japanese Hinode spacecraft and her leadership of the upcoming EUI telescope on Solar Orbiter. *2014: The

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

Chapman Medal The Chapman Medal is an award of the Royal Astronomical Society, given for "investigations of outstanding merit in the science of the Sun, space and planetary environments or solar-terrestrial physics". It is named after Sydney Chapman (1888� ...

, for single investigations of outstanding merit in solar-terrestrial physics, including geomagnetism and aeronomy. *2003: Philip Leverhulme Award– this award, in the Astronomy and Astrophysics category, recognises young scholars of substantial distinction and promise.

References