Downing Street appointment for physicist

Friday 9 March 2007
Downing Streetappointment for young Aberystwyth physicist
A PhD student who is studying ‘space weather' at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth has been invited to a reception hosted by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at 10 Downing Street on Monday 12 March.

Alan Wood is a member of the renowned Solar System Physics research group at Aberystwyth's Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. His invitation is “in recognition of the contribution young scientists, engineers and researchers [are making] to the future of the UK.”

Alan’s research focuses on the formation, movement and evolution of large patches of high density plasma in the upper polar atmosphere. Often extending over 1000s of kilometres, these patches can disrupt satellite signals such as those used for GPS navigation.

Now in his third year as a PhD student, Alan gained a first class honours degree in Physics with Planetary and Space Physics at Aberystwyth in 2002. The final semester of his course was spent in the high Arctic studying the upper polar atmosphere, an experience which inspired him to return as a PhD student in 2004 after training as a broadcast journalist and working for independent radio station Southern Gloucestershire’s Star 107.

Speaking before the reception, Alan said:
“It is a tremendous honour to be invited to a reception hosted by the Prime Minister. It will be fascinating to see what’s behind the famous black door at 10 Downing Street and I’m really looking forward to the event. Scientific research is vital for driving innovation across the country and it is good to see the government supporting it in this way.”

“The Solar System Physics Group at Aberystwyth is working on a fundamental question of modern physics - How the Sun affects the Earth through “space weather” effects. It is a privilege to be involved with a part of this work and both the research group and university have been tremendously supportive to my studies,” he added.

The Aberystwyth Solar System Physics Group is one of the UK’s leading centres for the study of the effects of solar weather on the Earth. Under the directorship of Professor Manuel Grande it has a significant role to play in several current space missions.

i. The Aspera 4 instrument on the European Space Agency’s Venus Express mission is enabling the team to study Venus’ dense atmosphere.
ii. Professor Grande was the principal investigator on the D-CIXS, a demonstrator compact X-ray spectrometer which formed part of the European Space Agency’s Smart-1 mission to the moon in September 2006.
iii. Dr Andy Breen is co-investigator on SECCHI, telescopic equipment which forms part of NASA’s Stereo mission which is expected to provide the first three dimensional close up images of the Sun in the very near future.