Solar Storms

Professor Mike Hapgood, Head of the Space Environment Group, RAL Space

Professor Mike Hapgood is Head of the Space Environment Group at RAL Space, the space research and technology department of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. He is also a visiting professor at Lancaster University working with the Space Plasma Environment and Radio Science Group.

Mike is an internationally recognised expert in space weather, with a deep interest in understanding how the science links to practical impacts. He has over 30 years experience in solar-terrestrial physics, both ground and space-based, working on projects such as EISCAT and Cluster.

Over the past decade Mike has led several major ESA space weather studies and served as chair of ESA's Space Weather Working Team (2006-2009). In the latter role he led European lobbying actions that supported the inclusion of space weather in the 2010 Framework 7 call.

He also has good links with US experts and was one of the organisers of the October 2011 Society and Space Weather workshop at NASA Ames Research Center in California.

He has played a leading role in a recent series of UK-US space weather workshops that have promoted efforts to coordinate space weather research, infrastructure and policy.

One of his major scientific interests is to understand and apply the physics that controls extreme space weather events. He participated in the 2008 US National Research Council study on the economic and societal impact of such events (the only European to do so) and has published several recent papers on the topic. Since 2010 he has chaired the Space Environment Impacts Expert Group that advises government bodies on the risks that extreme space weather poses to our country.

In March 2011 he was honoured to give the IET’s Kelvin Lecture.

In 2010 Mike worked with Lloyds insurance to produce a brochure that has raised awareness of the wider impact of space weather on business activities. Mike also has a long involvement in Royal Astronomical Society (where he was secretary 1998-2008 and vice-president 2008-2010).

He is also current (2008-2013) chair of MIST, the community group that works to coordinate the activities of the UK solar-terrestrial physics community and that is closely linked with RAS.

Speakers

Dr Chris Frost, Neutron Irradiation, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

James Kimmance, Head of Risk Management, Parsons Brinkerhoff

Dr Sally Leivesley, PhD Lond., MSPD, BA(Hons) Qld., FICPEM,FRSA,MACE

Sally is Managing Director of Newrisk Limited, she advises companies and government on catastrophic risk. She works across all fields to identify systems vulnerabilities and to design solutions which integrate physical and human factors.

Dr Simon Platt, Senior Lecturer in Electronics, University of Central Lancashire

Simon Platt is a Senior Lecturer in Electronics at the University of Central Lancashire.

He has been active in radiation effects work since 2004, with particular interest in accelerated testing for neutron-induced single-event effects, and is an IEC Technical Expert on Atmospheric Radiation.”

Keith Ryden, Reader, Space Engineering, University of Surrey Space Centre

Keith Ryden is Reader in Space Engineering at the University of Surrey Space Centre and previously held the post of Fellow at QinetiQ, the defence and security company.

Keith started his career in the 1980s with the Ministry of Defence at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, and has since accumulated over 25 years of experience investigating the effects of space environments on satellites, aircraft and microelectronics and he has also worked on mitigation methods and standards.

He is a consultant to numerous aerospace organisations and agencies and is a member of the UK Space Environment Impact Expert Group (SEIEG). Keith is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the IET.

Neil Smith, Lloyd's London

Neil Smith is emerging risks and research manager within the exposure management team at Lloyd's. In this role Neil is responsible for identifying, monitoring and analysing emerging risks that may potentially impact the Lloyd's market.

He is also responsible for preparing research reports on emerging risk topics, as well as on other insurance and risk-related topics. Neil’s team was responsible for producing the Lloyd’s report: “Space Weather – Its impact on Earth and Implications for Business” (2010).

Neil has worked at Lloyd's since 2004 where he started in the corporate communications department. He has a master's degree in Geography from the University of Cambridge.

Graeme Taylor, NPL

Graeme has worked in the Neutron Metrology Group at the National Physical Laboratory for more than twenty years, primarily in the field of neutron dosimetry and radiation protection, with a particular interest in microdosimetry.

Since 2000 he has been involved in measuring cosmic radiation in aircraft, initially in a PPARC-funded collaboration with Virgin Atlantic Airways, the Mullard Space Science Laboratory and the Civil Aviation Authority (2000 – 2005), later with Air New Zealand (2005) and TAG Aviation (2008 – 2009), and more recently with QinetiQ, SolarMetrics Ltd and a major US airline (2010 – 2013).

In 2011, Graeme was approached by EDF Energy to perform a literature review collating information on the potential magnitude of extreme ground level events, only to find that there was almost no information available.

This resulted in a prolonged period of high energy radiation transport calculations and a rapid immersion in the field of extreme value theory.

Dr Alan Thomson, Head of Geomagnetism, British Geological Survey

Alan is Head of Geomagnetism at the British Geological Survey. He has over 20 year’s experience as a researcher in geomagnetism, in analysis of ground-based and satellite-sampled geomagnetic data, in global and regional magnetic field modelling, in space weather, and on the geomagnetic hazard to technology.

He has researched the impact of space weather on the UK electricity transmission system for over ten years, together with partners in National Grid and Scottish Power.