Conversations With… Prof. Emma Bunce

Professor Emma Bunce is the Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy and is the current President of the Royal Astronomical Society.

What is your official job role?

I am a Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics (which alliterates nicely!) and I am the Head of School.

Can you briefly describe your role within the School of Physics and Astronomy?

My role has multiple elements to it – as the Head of School I am ultimately responsible for all the staff and students in the School – at any given time that is about 140 staff, 90 post-graduate research/taught students, and about 450 undergraduates. In reality of course, there is a whole team of people working together to make the School the friendly and highly successful place that it is – every single person plays an important role.

In addition the Head helps to shape the future direction of the School, in terms of our teaching activities and our research aspirations. I took on this role in January 2020, so it would be fair to say that so far my role has involved doing many things which have never been done before! I am extremely proud of the whole team, for their response to the rapidly changing situation and for being so committed to our continued success.

I am also a researcher and a member of teaching staff. My research interests are in planetary science and I am fortunate enough to have worked on multiple space missions such as Cassini at Saturn and Juno at Jupiter. I am the lead scientist (known as the Principal Investigator) on the instrument built here in Leicester which is currently cruising to Mercury on board the BepiColombo mission, which is very exciting. I am also working on the future mission to the Jupiter system called the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE!) which is due to launch in 2022.

What made you want to start on this career path?

I was always interested in space from a young age, and used my first telescope (from Argos) to stare at the moon, night after night. When I was about 14 Voyager flew past Neptune, and I watched BBC Horizon reporting on the science team’s findings and the first close-up view of the planet. I was completely hooked, and convinced that this was the job for me.

If you could give your former self one piece of advice what would it be?

You are going to want to give up when it gets tough… don’t!

What is your favourite thing to do outside of work?

Work takes up a fair fraction of my time, especially now. But I like spending as much time as possible with my family – I have two teenagers and so we like watching movies and sharing music recommendations with each other (they are amused by the dodgy music I listened to when I was their age!), I like watching the Tigers play rugby at Welford Road (even though they have played terribly for the last couple of seasons!), and I just love to be outside walking either around the city, or away in the countryside.

Do you have any pet colleagues or interesting hobbies/collections?

I have two cats – Montezuma and Mildred – we rescued them from the RSPCA. They are quite quirky as cats go, one is terrified of everything and other is utterly miserable! I would really like to own a dog – maybe one day!

What is your proudest achievement (doesn’t have to be work related)?

My proudest non-work achievement is raising two brilliant teenagers with my husband – they are the highlight of every day.

My proudest work achievement was being selected as a Deputy Lead Scientist on the JUICE mission science team, and specifically being a part of the presenting team in Paris as part of the competition for the first European Space Agency Large Class mission. We succeeded, and the JUICE mission was chosen to be the first L1 mission due to launch in 2022, arriving at Jupiter in 2030-ish. Every time I think about the fact that I played a role in making that happen I feel extremely proud and grateful to have been offered such an incredible opportunity (thanks ESA!).

If you had to describe yourself in one word what word would you choose?

Determined.