RAS Keith Runcorn Thesis Prize runner-up from MSSL

Dr. Nadine Kalmoni was a runner-up for the 2017 RAS Keith Runcorn Thesis Prize for her doctoral thesis entitled "The role of magnetospheric plasma instabilities in auroral and substorm dynamics". The prize, named in honour of the late Keith Runcorn, is awarded annually for the best PhD thesis in solar-system sciences and geophysics.

Nadine's thesis presented new research examining how plasma instabilities in Earth's magnetosphere play a critical role leading to the break-up and brightening of aurora known as substorms and how energy is transmitted tens of thousands of km from the magnetosphere into the ionosphere. Nadine's supervisor, Dr. Jonathan Rae, said "the work that Nadine did represents a step-change in our understanding of the physics involved in substorms".

During the course of her PhD, Nadine spend time collaborating with colleagues around the world, including being awarded the prestigious Vela Fellowship from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and being invited to work with Dr. David Sibeck (Project Scientist of the NASA THEMIS, ARTEMIS and Van Allen Probe missions) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This has led to an impressive publication record for a student in space plasma physics.

Following on from her PhD, Nadine took up a post-doctoral research position in the Space Plasma Group, building on her work on break-up aurora. She has now been offered a job in industry working as a data analyst, and we are sad to say she will be leaving MSSL at the end of June.