Since 2019 I have been a lecturer/senior lecturer at Northumbria University. My research spans several different topics in solar flare physics from modelling to observations and has won international prizes such as the European Geophysical Union (EGU) Solar-Terrestrial Early Career Researcher Prize (2018). I have several ongoing national and international collaborations in Europe and the USA, including as co-team leader of an ISSI team performing stereoscopic X-ray observations with SolO/STIX to constrain particle acceleration in flares.
Over the last six years, I have served our community firstly as a PDRA (2016-2019) and then as UKSP Deputy Chair (2019-present). My role as Deputy Chair was extremely active and involved maintaining the website, moderating news items, and distributing a twice-monthly newsletter to community. Therefore, my time on the council has provided the necessary experience for the role of UKSP chair and I would be honoured to serve the community once again in this new role, continuing the work of outgoing chair Professor Sarah Matthews.
Fundamentally, the UKSP council plays a vital role in binding our community and the many different areas of solar physics at work in the UK and in linking with other closely related councils such as MIST. It is important to remain strong as a community to help promote the excellent solar research in the UK over a wide range of solar and heliospheric topics. As well as overseeing the routine tasks of the council, as Chair, over the next three years I will push for the council to:
- Help to alleviate the issues of unguaranteed STFC funding of advanced summer schools by organising (1) shorter 1-day stand-alone UKSP science meetings outside of London (RAS), and (2) encourage the use of 1–2-day online workshops (via UKSP Zoom) that focus on ‘advanced’ teaching of a very particular skill (e.g., X-ray spectroscopy, machine learning) to all members of the community, but especially early-career PhD and PDRAs. To avoid increasing staff workloads further, such Zoom workshops can also be organised by early-career researchers, providing peer-to-peer teaching of skills and vital experience of workshop organisation and teaching.
- Make sure that UKSP nuggets are now maintained by two members of the elected council and possibly with help from rotating interested parties outside of the council (with community discussion).
- Finally, to use the council to the best of its ability, push to make the positions in the council more focussed and role-orientated to ensure that the council is always providing the best service it can to our community. This will include integrated roles such as UKSP nugget editor + deputy, plus possible new roles such as a dedicated UKSP small workshops organiser + deputy (again with community discussion).