Students from across the UK and Republic of Ireland attend STFC Introductory Solar System Plasmas Summer School

The aims were to instruct and inspire the incoming PhD students of 2018 about the Sun, the Solar Wind, the Magnetophere and Space Weather by bringing internationally leading UK scientists together and providing students with the broad context in which their specific research will reside, and by encouraging interdisciplinary thinking from the outset. Additionally, it encouraged participants to consider the timeliness and impact of present research both by highlighting existing and planned missions. The feedback received was overwhelmingly positive.

The school generally runs every year in institutes across the UK and introduces new PhD students to their broad topic of study. Funded by the STFC grant to Dr Claire Foullon in Mathematics, the school came to Exeter for the first time and attracted 36 postgraduate students, most of them about to start in their Year 1 of PhD studies. Particularly noteworthy was the relatively high proportion of female students (33%). A total of 17 lecturers delivered the course material, covering a wide range of expertise, diversity in affiliations, gender and seniority background levels. They were from 15 different institutes across the UK, 35% were female, 35% were Professors.

Dr Claire Foullon (Course Director) led and ran the school with the aid of Dr Emma Clarke (Local Organiser). The school’s main venue was the Living Systems Institute.