Members

A truly international team
researching wave dynamics

The WaLSA Team currently consists of 41 members, spanning 29 research institutes from 14 countries, with diverse expertise in the field of wave activity in the lower solar atmosphere.

Diverse expertise

Aligned objectives

Balanced disciplines

Complementary experience

WaLSA Team

Core Members

The core members of the WaLSA team are listed below (in alphabetical order). The team members hold a wealth of experience in the handling, preparation, and exploitation of high-resolution data sequences from modern ground-based and space/balloon-borne solar observatories, as well as in theory and simulations, spectropolarimetric signatures, and radiative-transfer processes. See the team's Scientific Rationale for greater details.

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Daniele Calchetti

Germany

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
Dr Daniele Calchetti

Postdoctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany. His research focuses on magneto-acoustic and internal gravity waves in the lower solar atmosphere.

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Rebecca Centeno

USA

High Altitude Observatory
Dr Rebecca Centeno

Project Scientist at High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Colorado, USA. Her main scientific interest lies in the field of Solar Spectropolarimetry for remote sensing of the Sun's magnetic fields.

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Viktor Fedun

UK

University of Sheffield
Prof Viktor Fedun

Scientist at the University of Sheffield. His research is primarily concerned with the mathematical modelling of physics of solar/space plasmas, including waves and instabilities in inhomogeneous media.

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Bernhard Fleck

USA

ESA Directorate of Science; c/o NASA/GSFC
Dr Bernhard Fleck

ESA Project Scientist for SOHO, Hinode, and IRIS, based at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, DC, USA. His research interests include wave-propagation characteristics of waves in the photosphere and chromosphere of the Sun.

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Vigeesh Gangadharan

Germany

Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics (KIS)
Dr Vigeesh Gangadharan

Researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics (KIS), in Germany. His main research is on numerical simulations of wave activity in the solar photosphere and chromosphere, with a focus on gravity waves in the magnetized atmosphere.

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Samuel Grant

UK

Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Samuel Grant

Researcher at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. His research interests revolve around high-frequency MHD waves in the lower solar atmosphere, and their influence on energy transport and plasma heating above the temperature minimum.

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Shahin Jafarzadeh*

Germany / Denmark

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) / NBIA
Dr Shahin Jafarzadeh

Scientist at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, and visiting researcher at NBIA in Denmark. His studies concern how the magnetic fields structure dynamics of the Sun's atmosphere, particularly from wave activity.

Profile Webpage
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David B. Jess*

UK

Queen’s University Belfast
Prof David B. Jess

Professor at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, working within the Solar Physics research group. He is predominantly interested in how the Sun’s energy travels through its atmosphere, both in the form of flares and waves.

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Peter H. Keys*

UK

Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Peter H. Keys

Solar physicist at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. His work centres on the dynamics of small-scale magnetic elements. His work on these elements follows their evolution and formation, as well as waves that are found to propagate along them.

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Elena Khomenko

Spain

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Dr Elena Khomenko

Research scientist at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, Spain). She has mostly been working in the field of Solar Physics, MHD wave theory, theory of partially ionized plasmas, quiet Sun magnetic fields, and spectropolarimetry.

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Richard Morton

UK

Northumbria University
Dr Richard Morton

Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University, UK. He currently leads a small research group who are motivated to understand the role magnetohydrodynamic waves play in transferring energy around the Sun’s atmosphere.

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Aimee A. Norton

USA

Stanford University
Dr Aimee A. Norton

Astronomer at Stanford University, USA, researching the Sun’s magnetic fields. Her interests are observational and include both the short and long time scales of solar magnetism, i.e., MHD waves and the solar dynamo.

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Hannah Schunker

Australia

University of Newcastle
Dr Hannah Schunker

Lecturer at University of Newcastle, Australia. As a helioseismologist, her research includes the coupling of the photospheric magnetic field to the subsurface layers, providing more boundary conditions for, e.g., flux emergence models.

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Marco Stangalini*

Italy

ASI - Italian Space Agency
Dr Marco Stangalini

Researcher at ASI (Italian Space Agency). His interests are primarily the study of MHD waves, through the analysis of high spatial resolution spectropolarimetric data, and the development of new high resolution instrumentation.

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Oskar Steiner

Switzerland / Germany

Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno / KIS
Dr Oskar Steiner

Senior scientist at IRSOL (CH) and KIS (DE). His research includes numerical experiments of wave propagation and conversion for the interpretation and prediction of observable signals of wave activities in the solar atmosphere.

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Gary Verth

UK

University of Sheffield
Dr Gary Verth

Scientist at the University of Sheffield. He specialises in both the theory and observational interpretation of magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar atmosphere, in both large-scale and small-scale magnetic structures.

* Team Coordinators

WaLSA Team

Associate Members

Associate members are equally involved in the research conducted by the WaLSA Team. The associate members listed below (in alphabetical order) are the first of many envisaged. New associates are expected to join the team over time.

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Tony Arber

UK

University of Warwick
Prof Tony Arber

Scientist at the University of Warwick, UK. His research interests are in computational plasma physics applied to solar physics, space weather, laser-plasma interactions, fusion and QED-plasmas.

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Andrés Asensio Ramos

Spain

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Dr Andrés A. Ramos

Researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain. His research includes Sun's magnetic-field measurements, and more recently, application of, e.g., deep learning, to get physical information of the solar atmosphere.

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Robert Cameron

Germany

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
Dr Robert Cameron

Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany. His research includes radiative MHD simulations of the solar atmosphere, solar dynamo, helioseismologiy, and MHD waves in the solar atmosphere.

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Timothy Duckenfield

UK

Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Timothy Duckenfield

Research Fellow at the School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, UK. His research focuses on studying MHD waves in the solar atmosphere, from both observations and simulations.

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Catherine Fischer

USA

National Solar Observatory
Dr Catherine Fischer

Catherine Fischer is a scientist at the National Solar Observatory (NSO), USA. Her main research centers around the temporal evolution of the small-scale magnetic field, particularly from high-resolution observations.

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Ricardo Gafeira

Portugal

University of Coimbra
Dr Ricardo Gafeira

Researcher at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. His main focus is on spectropolarimetric measurements, Stokes inversions, machine learning, and MHD waves in the solar photosphere and chromosphere.

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Stuart M. Jefferies

USA

Georgia State University
Prof Stuart M. Jefferies

Scientist at Georgia State University and University of Hawaii, USA. His research interests include instrumentations for high-resolution imaging of the Sun, as well as, waves in the lower solar atmosphere.

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John Leibacher

USA / France

National Solar Observatory / Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale
Prof John Leibacher

Astronomer at the National Solar Observatory (USA) and visiting researcher at Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (France), working on helioseismology, asteroseismology, and stellar atmospheric dynamics.

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Paul Rajaguru

India

Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Prof Paul Rajaguru

Scientist at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, India. His main research is on helioseismological studies of large-scale solar interior flows, rotation and their variability, and local helioseismology of sunspots and solar activity.

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Luiz Augusto Schiavo

UK

Northumbria University
Dr Luiz Schiavo

Research Fellow at the Northumbria University, UK. His current research includes identification of MHD wave modes using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition techniques.

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Rahul Sharma

UK

Northumbria University
Dr Rahul Sharma

Rahul Sharma is currently a research fellow at the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University. His research interests include waves and instabilities in the solar atmosphere.

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Suzana Silva

UK

University of Sheffield
Dr Suzana Silva

Research Associate in Solar Physics at the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield, UK.

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Ben Snow

UK

University of Exeter
Dr Ben Snow

Researcher at the University of Exeter, UK, studying the effects of partially ionised plasma. In particular, his research includes performing two-fluid numerical simulations of shocks and interactions between neutral and ionised species.

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Luis Eduardo Vieira

Brazil

INPE - National Institute of Space Research
Dr Luis E. A. Vieira

Researcher at the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) and PI of the Galileo Solar Space Telescope (GSST). His expertise includes image and signal processing, solar irradiance, variability, and solar dynamo.

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Nitin Yadav

India

IISER Thiruvananthapuram
Dr Nitin Yadav

Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram. Her research primarily focuses on propagation of MHD waves in the solar atmosphere, particularly from numerical simulations.

WaLSA Team

Affiliate Members

Affiliate members are scientists or graduate students with an interest in the WaLSA-related activities. The affiliate members may contribute to the research lead by the core and associate members, or collaborate with the WaLSA Team on their own science projects. Get in Touch if you want to become an affiliate member of the WaLSA Team.

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William Bate

UK

Queen’s University Belfast
Mr William Bate

PhD researcher at the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast, UK. His research currently focuses on the energy potentially carried by observed transverse oscillations in spicules.

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Michele Berretti

Italy

University of Trento
Mr Michele Berretti

Michele Berretti is a PhD researcher at University of Trento, and affiliated at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. His research focuses on wave studies using big data.

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José Roberto Canivete Cuissa

Switzerland

Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno - IRSOL
Dr José Roberto Canivete Cuissa

José Roberto Canivete Cuissa is a postdoctoral researcher at IRSOL, Switzerland. His expertise lies in analysing, modelling, and solving complex physical systems from both analytical and numerical point of view.

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Varun Chaturmutha

USA

Georgia State University
Mr Varun Chaturmutha

PhD student; His research interests are in the seismology of the solar atmosphere and multi-height doppler data to analyze acoustic wave propagation. He is also interested in data analysis and has worked on usage statistics for the Helioviewer Project.

Profile Webpage
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Juan Guevara

Norway

Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics (RoCS)
Dr Juan Camilo Guevara Gomez

Postdoctoral researcher at Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, University of Oslo, Norway. His research focuses on study of MHD waves in small chromospheric (magnetic) structures from ALMA observations.

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Matías Koll Pistarini

Spain

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Mr Matías Koll Pistarini

Matías Koll Pistarini is a PhD researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain. His research is mainly focused on the effects of partial ionization on energy transport in vortices and waves.

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Fallon Konow

USA

Georgia State University
Ms Fallon Konow

PhD researcher at Georgia State University, USA. Her research focuses on development of a He D3 Magneto-Optical Filter which will provide wavelength standard Doppler velocity and magnetic field measurements in the upper chromosphere.

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Max Mcmurdo

UK

University of Sheffield
Mr Max Mcmurdo

Max Mcmurdo is a PhD researcher within the Plasma Dynamics Group at the University of Sheffield, working on problems related to the MHD wave propagation in the solar atmosphere.

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Nancy Narang

Norway

University of Oslo
Dr Nancy Narang

Postdoctoral researcher at the Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics (ROCS) Norway. Her main interests are solar atmospheric heating, observations and simulations, plasma physics, magnetohydrodynamics, and radiative transfer.

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Diego Prado Barroso

Brazil

INPE - National Institute for Space Research
Mr Diego Prado Barroso

PhD researcher at the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE). His main research focus is on sunspot waves at high resolution from SST observations.

Profile Webpage
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Samuel Skirvin

Belgium

KU Leuven
Dr Samuel Skirvin

Postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven, Belgium, working on observational, numerical and analytical studies of the Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor in solar plasma.