Yvonne Elsworth

Last updated

Yvonne Elsworth
Education University of Manchester (BSc, PhD)
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions University of Birmingham
Thesis A field-compensated multiplex spectrometer for the visible region  (1976)
Website www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/physics/people/staff-profile.aspx?ReferenceId=8416

Yvonne Elsworth FRS FInstP FRAS is an Irish-born physicist, Professor of Helioseismology and Poynting Professor of Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. [2] Elsworth was until 2015 also the Head of the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON), the longest running helioseismology network with data covering well over three solar cycles. [3]

Contents

Education

In 1970 Elsworth graduated with honours from the Victoria University of Manchester with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. In 1976 she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree [4] [5] from the School of Physics at the Victoria University of Manchester. [2] [6] [7] [8] Her thesis work was entitled "A field-compensated multiplex spectrometer for the visible region" [4] and was concerned with the design and implementation of a novel form of field-widened Michelson interferometer designed to study faint, extended sources like those coming from optical emission from the thermosphere.

Research

In 1984 Elsworth was appointed to a faculty position at the University of Birmingham, where she focused on helioseismology, solar physics, solar variability, and latterly asteroseismology, stellar physics and stellar variability. [2] [9] [10] [11] She participated in and later led the Birmingham Solar Oscillation Network. Her research has been funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). [12]

Awards and honours

Elsworth was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2015 for her work on helioseismology. [1] Her certificate of election reads:

Professor Elsworth's pioneering work in establishing and maintaining an important scientific investigation into the internal structure of the Sun using helioseismic data from the autonomous Birmingham network of observatories complemented by extant data from modes of intermediate degree has permitted an unprecedented investigation into the inner core of the Sun where the nuclear reactions are taking place. This has led to the conclusion that the deficiency of solar neutrinos detected on Earth was an issue of nuclear physics or particle physics, not of solar modelling; it also established that the very centre of the Sun rotates no more rapidly than the convective envelope, a matter of serious dynamical concern. Furthermore, Professor Elsworth has led her group to study solar-cycle-related variations in the Sun's convective envelope, providing important structural information to theorists investigating the solar dynamo. Her current extension to seismic studies of stars other than the Sun is already contributing to a transformation in our understanding of stellar evolution. [1]

In 2011 she was awarded the Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics (IoP). [13] and in 2020 the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in Geophysics. [14]

Elsworth is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS). [15]

Related Research Articles

Helioseismology, a term coined by Douglas Gough, is the study of the structure and dynamics of the Sun through its oscillations. These are principally caused by sound waves that are continuously driven and damped by convection near the Sun's surface. It is similar to geoseismology, or asteroseismology, which are respectively the studies of the Earth or stars through their oscillations. While the Sun's oscillations were first detected in the early 1960s, it was only in the mid-1970s that it was realized that the oscillations propagated throughout the Sun and could allow scientists to study the Sun's deep interior. The modern field is separated into global helioseismology, which studies the Sun's resonant modes directly, and local helioseismology, which studies the propagation of the component waves near the Sun's surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chthonian planet</span> Gas giants with their atmospheric layers stripped

Chthonian planets are a hypothetical class of celestial objects resulting from the stripping away of a gas giant's hydrogen and helium atmosphere and outer layers, which is called hydrodynamic escape. Such atmospheric stripping is a likely result of proximity to a star. The remaining rocky or metallic core would resemble a terrestrial planet in many respects.

Eric Ronald Priest is Emeritus Professor at St Andrews University, where he previously held the Gregory Chair of Mathematics and a Bishop Wardlaw Professorship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network</span> Network of six solar helioseismology observatories

The Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON) consists of a network of six remote solar observatories monitoring low-degree solar oscillation modes. It is operated by the High Resolution Optical Spectroscopy group of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham, UK, in collaboration with Sheffield Hallam University, UK. They are funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PG 1159-035</span> Star in the constellation Virgo

PG 1159-035 is the prototypical PG 1159 star after which the class of PG 1159 stars was named. It was discovered in the Palomar-Green survey of ultraviolet-excess stellar objects and, like the other PG 1159 stars, is in transition between being the central star of a planetary nebula and being a white dwarf.

Dame Lynn Faith Gladden is the Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She served as Pro-vice-chancellor for research from 2010 to 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michele Dougherty</span> Space physicist at Imperial College London

Michele Karen Dougherty is a Professor of Space Physics at Imperial College London. She is leading unmanned exploratory missions to Saturn and Jupiter and is Principal Investigator for J-MAG – a magnetometer for the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, launched in April 2023.

The Phoebus group is an international team of European, Japanese and American scientists aiming at detecting the solar g modes. As of October 5, 2009, the group has finally produced a review summarising the work performed over the past 12 years.

Douglas Owen Gough FRS is a British astronomer, Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Astrophysics in the University of Cambridge, and Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Charlton</span>

David George Charlton is Professor of Particle Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham, UK. From 2013 to 2017, he served as Spokesperson of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Prior to becoming Spokesperson, he was Deputy Spokesperson for four years, and before that Physics Coordinator of ATLAS in the run-up to the start of collision data-taking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miles Padgett</span> Professor of Optics

Miles John Padgett is a Royal Society Research Professor of Optics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow. He has held the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy since 2011 and served as Vice Principal for research at Glasgow from 2014 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Wyatt</span> British scientist

Terence Richard Wyatt is a Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester, UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Nelson</span> Irish physicist

Jenny Nelson is Professor of Physics in the Blackett Laboratory and Head of the Climate change mitigation team at the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment at Imperial College London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Cowley</span> British theoretical physicist


Sir Steven Charles Cowley is a British theoretical physicist and international authority on nuclear fusion and astrophysical plasmas. He has served as director of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) since 1 July 2018. Previously he served as president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, since October 2016. and head of the EURATOM / CCFE Fusion Association and chief executive officer of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Peter Mackenzie</span> Physicist and educator from Scotland

Andrew Peter Mackenzie is a director of Physics of Quantum Materials at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Germany and Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He became a co-editor of the Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics as of 2020.

Raymond Ethan Goldstein FRS FInstP is the Alan Turing Professor of Complex Physical Systems in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Robin Marshall is an Emeritus professor of Physics & Biology in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester.

Jennifer Anne Thomas,, is a British experimental particle physicist and professor at University College London. She has been a pioneer in the development of particle detectors, and the recipient of the Michael Faraday medal and prize in 2018 for her "outstanding investigations into the physics of neutrino oscillations".

Wendy Ruth Flavell is Vice Dean for Research and a Professor of Surface Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. Her research investigates the electronic structure of complex metal oxides, chalcogenides, photoemission and photovoltaics.

Andrew Dawson Taylor was director of the Science and Technology Facilities Council National Laboratories – Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Daresbury Laboratory, and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh until his retirement in 2019.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Anon (2015). "Professor Yvonne Elsworth FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." -- "Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. 1 2 3 Anon (2015). "Professor Yvonne Elsworth BSc, PhD, FRAS, FInstP Professor of Helioseismology Poynting Professor of Physics". University of Birmingham. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  3. "Archived copy". astro.phys.au.dk. Archived from the original on 11 June 2007. Retrieved 12 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. 1 2 Elsworth, Yvonne P. (1976). A field-compensated multiplex spectrometer for the visible region (PhD thesis). University of Manchester. ProQuest   301333536.
  5. Elsworth, Y; James, J F; Sternberg, R S (1974). "A field compensated interference spectrometer for the visible region: the optical design". Journal of Physics E: Scientific Instruments. 7 (10): 813–816. Bibcode:1974JPhE....7..813E. doi:10.1088/0022-3735/7/10/011.
  6. Hopkinson, G. R.; Elsworth, Yvonne; James, J. F. (1974). "Dust in the head of Comet Kohoutek". Nature. 249 (5454): 233–234. Bibcode:1974Natur.249..233H. doi:10.1038/249233a0. S2CID   4156717.
  7. Hopkinson, G. R.; Elsworth, Yvonne; James, J. F. (1974). "Photometry of the zodiacal light in the near infrared". Nature. 251 (5477): 694. Bibcode:1974Natur.251Q.694H. doi: 10.1038/251694a0 . S2CID   4198740.
  8. Elsworth, Y; James, J F (1973). "An optical screw with a pitch of one wavelength". Journal of Physics E: Scientific Instruments. 6 (11): 1134–1136. Bibcode:1973JPhE....6.1134E. doi:10.1088/0022-3735/6/11/027.
  9. Yvonne Elsworth's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  10. Chaplin, W. J.; Kjeldsen, H.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Basu, S.; Miglio, A.; Appourchaux, T.; Bedding, T. R.; Elsworth, Y.; Garcia, R. A.; Gilliland, R. L.; Girardi, L.; Houdek, G.; Karoff, C.; Kawaler, S. D.; Metcalfe, T. S.; Molenda-Zakowicz, J.; Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G.; Thompson, M. J.; Verner, G. A.; Ballot, J.; Bonanno, A.; Brandao, I. M.; Broomhall, A.- M.; Bruntt, H.; Campante, T. L.; Corsaro, E.; Creevey, O. L.; Dogan, G.; Esch, L.; Gai, N.; Gaulme, P.; Hale, S. J.; Handberg, R.; Hekker, S.; Huber, D.; Jimenez, A.; Mathur, S.; Mazumdar, A.; Mosser, B.; New, R.; Pinsonneault, M. H.; Pricopi, D.; Quirion, P.- O.; Regulo, C.; Salabert, D.; Serenelli, A. M.; Aguirre, V. S.; Sousa, S. G.; Stello, D.; Stevens, I. R.; Suran, M. D.; Uytterhoeven, K.; White, T. R.; Borucki, W. J.; Brown, T. M.; Jenkins, J. M.; Kinemuchi, K.; Van Cleve, J.; Klaus, T. C. (2011). "Ensemble Asteroseismology of Solar-Type Stars with the NASA Kepler Mission". Science. 332 (6026): 213–216. arXiv: 1109.4723 . Bibcode:2011Sci...332..213C. doi:10.1126/science.1201827. PMID   21474754. S2CID   33911883.
  11. Bedding, Timothy R.; Mosser, Benoit; Huber, Daniel; Montalbán, Josefina; Beck, Paul; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Elsworth, Yvonne P.; García, Rafael A.; Miglio, Andrea; Stello, Dennis; White, Timothy R.; De Ridder, Joris; Hekker, Saskia; Aerts, Conny; Barban, Caroline; Belkacem, Kevin; Broomhall, Anne-Marie; Brown, Timothy M.; Buzasi, Derek L.; Carrier, Fabien; Chaplin, William J.; Di Mauro, Maria Pia; Dupret, Marc-Antoine; Frandsen, Søren; Gilliland, Ronald L.; Goupil, Marie-Jo; Jenkins, Jon M.; Kallinger, Thomas; Kawaler, Steven; Kjeldsen, Hans; Mathur, Savita; Noels, Arlette; Aguirre, Victor Silva; Ventura, Paolo (2011). "Gravity modes as a way to distinguish between hydrogen- and helium-burning red giant stars". Nature. 471 (7340): 608–611. arXiv: 1103.5805 . Bibcode:2011Natur.471..608B. doi:10.1038/nature09935. PMID   21455175. S2CID   4338871.
  12. Anon (2015). "UK government grants awarded to Yvonne Elsworth". Swindon: Research Councils UK. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016.
  13. Anon (2011). "2011 Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and Prize". iop.org. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  14. "Professor Yvonne Elsworth: 2020 Gold Medal in Geophysics" (PDF). RAS. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  15. Anon (2015). "Yvonne Elsworth (FRAS) elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)". ras.org.uk.