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Mathew Owens

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Mathew Owens
Matthew Owens (right) receiving the Fowler medal in 2012
Academic career

Mathew Owens is a British physicist and professor of space physics at the University of Reading in the UK.[1] He has made major contributions to the understanding of the solar wind and space weather.[2]

Early life and education

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Owens grew up in Wrexham, Wales, before graduating with an MSci in Physics with Space Science from University College London. He was awarded a doctorate from Imperial College London in 2003 in the field of Space Weather.[1]

Research career

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His first postdoctoral position was at the Center for Space Physics, Boston University where he was part of the Consortium in Space-weather Modelling (CISM) and worked with Prof Nancy Crooker[3][4] from 2004 to 2008. In 2008, he returned to Imperial College London as a senior research associate until joining the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading in 2010, where he works closely with Prof Mike Lockwood FRS and Prof Christopher Scott.

Owens has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles[5] on a variety of topics including the heliospheric magnetic field,[6] the source of the slow solar wind, empirical and physics-based space-weather and reconstructions of long-term solar variability.[7][8] He also works on the link between long-term solar variability and terrestrial climate, demonstrating that the Sun is not the primary driver of global temperature variations over the last few centuries.[9][10]

He developed and maintains the Heliospheric Upwind Extrapolation with time-dependence (HUXt)[11][12] model of the solar wind, which enables rapid forecasting of space-weather conditions.

His research has often been cited in the national and international press, including the BBC,[13] The Times,[14] The Guardian,[15][16][17] The Independent,[18][19] New Scientist,[20][21] Scientific American,[22] Forbes,[23] and IFLScience.[24][25][26] Owens' work is also regularly highlighted in the main news journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), EOS.[27][28][29]

Owens is a Co-Investigator for the Solar Orbiter magnetometer instrument.[30] He leads an International Space Science Institute team focused on recalibrating the sunspot record.[31]

Awards and recognition

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  • 2016: Editor for the journal Solar Physics[32]
  • 2013: The highly prestigious Philip Leverhulme prize for outstanding achievement in Astronomy and Astrophysics[33]
  • 2012: Royal Astronomical Society's Fowler Award[34]
  • 2012: Associate Editor for Journal for Geophysical Research (Space).

References

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  1. ^ a b "Dept of Meteorology - University of Reading". www.met.reading.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  2. ^ "Professor Mathew Owens: Forecasting Space Weather".
  3. ^ "BU Profs Brace for Storms from Outer Space | BU Today". Boston University. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  4. ^ "CISM // People". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  5. ^ "Mathew Owens - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  6. ^ Owens, Mathew J.; Forsyth, Robert J. (2013-11-28). "The Heliospheric Magnetic Field". Living Reviews in Solar Physics. 10 (1): 5. Bibcode:2013LRSP...10....5O. doi:10.12942/lrsp-2013-5. ISSN 1614-4961.
  7. ^ Owens, M. J.; Lockwood, M.; Riley, P. (2017-01-31). "Global solar wind variations over the last four centuries". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 41548. Bibcode:2017NatSR...741548O. doi:10.1038/srep41548. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5282500. PMID 28139769.
  8. ^ Owens, Mathew J.; Lockwood, Mike; Barnard, Luke A.; Scott, Chris J.; Haines, Carl; Macneil, Allan (2021-05-20). "Extreme Space-Weather Events and the Solar Cycle". Solar Physics. 296 (5): 82. Bibcode:2021SoPh..296...82O. doi:10.1007/s11207-021-01831-3. ISSN 1573-093X. S2CID 236402345.
  9. ^ Owens, Mathew J.; Lockwood, Mike; Hawkins, Ed; Usoskin, Ilya; Jones, Gareth S.; Barnard, Luke; Schurer, Andrew; Fasullo, John (2017). "The Maunder minimum and the Little Ice Age: an update from recent reconstructions and climate simulations". Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate. 7: A33. Bibcode:2017JSWSC...7A..33O. doi:10.1051/swsc/2017034. hdl:20.500.11820/7c44295a-1578-4e1c-8579-452dc70430c6. ISSN 2115-7251.
  10. ^ Contributors, Ars (2023-03-15). "All the ways the most common bit of climate misinformation is wrong". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2023-03-24. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  11. ^ University-of-Reading-Space-Science/HUXt, University of Reading Space Science Research Group, 2021-05-12, retrieved 2021-05-28
  12. ^ Owens, Mathew; Lang, Matthew; Barnard, Luke; Riley, Pete; Ben-Nun, Michal; Scott, Chris J.; Lockwood, Mike; Reiss, Martin A.; Arge, Charles N.; Gonzi, Siegfried (2020-03-19). "A Computationally Efficient, Time-Dependent Model of the Solar Wind for Use as a Surrogate to Three-Dimensional Numerical Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations". Solar Physics. 295 (3): 43. Bibcode:2020SoPh..295...43O. doi:10.1007/s11207-020-01605-3. ISSN 1573-093X. S2CID 215543025.
  13. ^ McGrath, Matt (2014-11-19). "Sun boosts UK lightning strikes". Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  14. ^ Correspondent, Rhys Blakely, Science. "Extreme solar storms put Nasa's 2024 mission to the moon at risk". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2021-05-28. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Gray, Richard (2014-11-19). "Sun's magnetic field sparks lightning on Earth". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  16. ^ Ravilious, Kate (2016-06-26). "Analysing the sound of thunderstorms". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  17. ^ Nuccitelli, Dana (2018-01-09). "The 'imminent mini ice age' myth is back, and it's still wrong | Dana Nuccitelli". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  18. ^ "Scientists riddle out the recipe for increased lightning strikes in". The Independent. 2014-11-19. Archived from the original on 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  19. ^ "Weather forecasts from distant space would help keep Earth safe from catastrophic solar winds, study finds". The Independent. 2018-10-17. Archived from the original on 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  20. ^ "Sleepy sun spreads slow solar wind". New Scientist. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  21. ^ Sparkes, Matthew. "Crewed lunar mission must launch by 2025 to avoid deadly solar storms". New Scientist. Retrieved 2021-05-28.
  22. ^ Intagliata, Christopher. "Sun's Magnetic Field Boosts Earth Lightning". Scientific American. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  23. ^ Carter, Jamie. "New Warning For NASA To Hurry Up And Put Humans On The Moon Or Risk 'Extreme Events'". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-05-28.
  24. ^ "Solar Storms Are "Sneeze-like" When They Reach Earth". IFLScience. 26 June 2017. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  25. ^ "Sun Might Enter Very Quiet Period, Limiting Northern Lights Shows To Just North Pole". IFLScience. February 2017. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  26. ^ "Crewed Missions To The Moon Need To Get A Move On To Avoid Upcoming Solar Storms". IFLScience. 21 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-05-28.
  27. ^ "Sun's Magnetic Field Impacts Earth's Thunderstorms". Eos. 29 January 2016. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  28. ^ "A Better Way to Predict Space Storms". Eos. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  29. ^ Cartier, Kimberly M. S. (2022-08-25). "11 Discoveries Awaiting Us at Solar Max". Eos. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  30. ^ "Solar Orbiter: Synergy between Observations and Theory | The Royal Astronomical Society". ras.ac.uk. 10 November 2017. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  31. ^ "Recalibration of the Sunspot Number Series | ISSI Team led by Mathew Owens & Frederic Clette (UK)". Retrieved 2019-10-15.
  32. ^ "Solar Physics". Springer. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  33. ^ "Philip Leverhulme Prizes 2013 | The Leverhulme Trust". www.leverhulme.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  34. ^ "University Scientist Wins Royal Astronomical Society Award". 2019-10-14.
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