Imperial’s Head of the Division of Physics will start her two-year time period as President of the Council of Trustees in 2025.
Professor Dougherty is Professor of Area Physics and Head of the Division of Physics at Imperial. She is going to function President-Elect for 2 years from October 2023, shadowing the present President, after which she’s going to function President for 2 years.
The Institute of Physics (IOP)’s goal is ‘to advertise the development and dissemination of a data of and training within the science of physics, pure and utilized, for the good thing about the general public and the members of IOP’.
On the announcement of her election, she stated: “I’m honoured to be taking over this position, and really a lot stay up for working along with the IOP in its essential work on this space. I additionally very a lot stay up for working with the brand new President, Keith Burnett, and want him all the perfect within the position.”
Planetary missions
Born in South Africa in 1962, her love of area science started when her father constructed his personal 10-inch telescope within the household’s again backyard. Physics was not even on the curriculum of her all-girls’ college in South Africa. She gained a BSc in utilized arithmetic on the (then) College of Natal, the place she stayed on to do an honours 12 months in physics adopted by a PhD.
She began her profession engaged on the speculation of photo voltaic wind and galactic wind outflows on the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, earlier than shifting to Imperial in 1991. Quickly after becoming a member of Imperial, she was requested whether or not she want to get entangled with making ready a magnetic subject mannequin for when the Ulysses spacecraft flew previous Jupiter on its approach to orbit the Solar at its poles. This proved to be the beginning of her profession in area physics.
Professor Dougherty was principal investigator for the magnetometer on the exploratory Cassini mission to Saturn and now holds the identical position for the European Area Company’s JUICE Jupiter moon orbiting venture, which launched in April 2023 and is predicted to reach within the Jupiter system by 2032.
Adorned profession
Her use of magnetic subject knowledge on the Cassini mission led to the invention of an environment containing water and hydrocarbons round Saturn’s moon Enceladus — opening up new prospects within the seek for life. For this, she was awarded the IOP Chree Medal and Prize in 2007 and the Royal Society’s Hughes Medal in 2008. She has been a fellow of the Royal Society since 2012 and obtained certainly one of its prestigious Analysis Professorships in 2014.
She chaired the UK Area Company’s Science Programme Advisory Committee from 2013-2016. In 2017, she grew to become solely the fifth lady to be awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s gold medal for geophysics, recognising lifetime achievement within the subject.
This was adopted by the IOP Richard Glazebrook medal and prize in 2018 in recognition of her scientific management on each the Cassini and JUICE missions. In 2019, She was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union for her distinctive scientific contribution to area science.
Professor Dougherty can also be a member of the Science and Expertise Services Council at UK Analysis and Innovation (UKRI) and an honorary worldwide member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was awarded a CBE within the 2018 New Yr’s Honours checklist for providers to UK Bodily Science Analysis.
This text was first revealed on 21 July by Imperial Faculty London.
