Louise Harra is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

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 caus ...

, born in

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. 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 (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

Education

Louise Harra was born in

, and she attended later

Banbridge Academy Banbridge Academy is a grammar school in Banbridge, Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of I ...

. She graduated from

The Queen's University of Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

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 deals with detailed measurements that are possible only for our closest star. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics, astrophysics, and compu ...

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

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 the ...

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 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 an intense localized eruption 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 other solar phe ...

s and

coronal mass ejection A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field 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 ...

s, formation of the

solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sola ...

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'' in Japanese), 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 King ...

, Instrument Scientist based in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

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

Solar Orbiter The Solar Orbiter (SolO) is a Sun-observing satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). SolO, designed to obtain detailed measurements of the inner heliosphere and the nascent solar wind, will also perform close observations of the ...

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 best known for his work with ITV as editor and presenter of ''The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010), and for the BBC Radio 4 documenta ...

*2014

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

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

*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 space exploration, particularly British achievements. Nominations for the awards are made by members of the public, with shortlis ...

, 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 (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

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