Hilary Cane is planetary scientist known for her research on

solar energetic particles Solar energetic particles (SEP), formerly known as solar cosmic rays, are high-energy, charged particles originating in the solar atmosphere and solar wind. They consist of protons, electrons and heavy ions with energies ranging from a few ten ...

Education and career

Cane earned her Ph.D. in radio astronomy from the

University of Tasmania The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a public research university, primarily located in Tasmania, Australia. Founded in 1890, it is Australia's fourth oldest university. Christ College, one of the university's residential colleges, first prop ...

in 1978. Following her Ph.D., she joined the

National Aeronautics and Space Agency The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

's Goddard Space Flight center to work on the

International Cometary Explorer The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft (designed and launched as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) satellite), was launched 12 August 1978, into a heliocentric orbit. It was one of three spacecraft, along with the mo ...

. For a period of years, Cane and her husband William Erickson split their time between Maryland and

Bruny Island Bruny Island ( Nuenonne: Lunawanna-alonnah) is a island located off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is separated from the Tasmanian mainland by the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and its east coast lies within the Tasman ...

, Tasmania where Cane continued to work at the Goddard Space Flight Center. In 2014, Cane was elected a fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...

"for elucidating the relative roles of flares and coronal mass ejections as sources of energetic particles from the Sun."

Research

Cane's research investigated the abundance of solar energetic particles and the magnetic field of the sun and coronal mass ejections, particles released from the sun that interfere with power grids.

Selected publications

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Awards and honors

* Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2014)

Personal life

Cane started orienteering in the mid-1970s and has published a walker's guide to Bruny Island. Cane was married to the astronomer William C. Erickson who established the Bruny Island Radio Spectrometer before he died in 2015.

References

External links

* talk given on June 1, 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cane, Hilary University of Tasmania alumni Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Women physicists Space scientists Living people 1949 births