We are a successful group pursuing high-international-priority research across the broad remit of Solar and Space Physics. The group demonstrates international leadership across theory, numerical modelling, observations of solar and space plasma, data intensive science, and a growing reputation for space-related hardware.

Our Solar and Space Physics research has been supported with core funding from STFC and NERC as well as funding from EU Horizon 2020, European Space Agency (ESA), UK Space Agency (UKSA), the US Air Force, the National Solar Observatory (USA), the Leverhulme Trust, and the Royal Astronomical Society. The Group leads an STFC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science. Members of the group, including Prof Jonathan Rae, Prof Clare Watt, Dr Shaun Bloomfield and Dr Andy Smith also contribute to the ongoing UKRI SWIMMR (Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk) national space weather programme in support of the UK Met Office. The group includes 1 Future Leader Fellow (Dr Richard Morton), 2 Royal Society University Research Fellows (Dr Luca Franci, Dr Julia Stawarz), 1 NERC Independent Research Fellow (Dr Andy Smith), 1 STFC James Webb Fellow (Dr Henrik Melin) and 2 STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellows (Dr John Coxon, Dr Stephanie Yardley).

Group members sit on various national and international panels including the STFC Education, Training and Careers Committee (Prof James McLaughlin), STFC Solar System Advisory Panel (Dr Patrick Antolin and Dr Charlotte Goetz), STFC Project Peer Review Panel (Prof Robert Wicks), UKSA’s Space Programme Advisory Committee (Prof Clare Watt) and ESA’s Space Science Advisory Committee (Prof Jonathan Rae).

Group leadership and contacts

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

Academic team

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
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)

STFC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science

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.

Space Technology

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.

The NSTL X-Ray irradiator is a yellow box about the size of a person with radiation warning signs.

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

Press Releases

Examples of recent successes:

Research relationships

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.

This group is a part of the University’s multi-disciplinary research into the theme of Space.