{"id":771,"date":"2021-02-17T13:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/?p=771"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:37:29","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:37:29","slug":"celebrating-international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-2021-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/2021\/02\/17\/celebrating-international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science-2021-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021 &#8211; Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>On February 11<sup>th<\/sup> the School of Physics and Astronomy joined in with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrations, using Twitter (@PhysicsUoL) to showcase some of the valuable, innovative research currently being led by women around the School. <br><\/em><\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a series of three posts, we&#8217;ll share some highlights from the day, taking in everything from the search for signs of life on the surface of Mars to some of the furthest, most energetic events in the universe.  We&#8217;ll start by showcasing some of our planetary explorers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Planetary Explorers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We start our journey on the microscopic scale with Dr Melissa McHugh, a postdoc in instrumentation working on the UK Raman Laser Spectrometer team. The RLS is due to fly to Mars in 2022 as part of the ESA ExoMars rover, and will help search for signs of past and present life on the surface of the Red Planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dr Melissa McHugh is a postdoctoral researcher and is part of the UK Raman Laser Spectrometer team which is an  instrument on-board the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESA_ExoMars?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ESA_ExoMars<\/a>  rover (due for launch in 2022). The RLS will help look for signs of past\/present life on Mars. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/InternationalDayOfWomenInScience?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#InternationalDayOfWomenInScience<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9G9hrnwX0X\">pic.twitter.com\/9G9hrnwX0X<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Physics &amp; Astronomy, University of Leicester (@PhysicsUoL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhysicsUoL\/status\/1359856056357249024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 11, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Working our way out to the gas giants, Dr Arrate Antu\u00f1ano is leading a long-term study of the belts and zones that comprise Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere. Amongst other results, the study has for the first time uncovered a periodic pattern of equatorial disturbances which occurs every 6-7 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Arrate Antu\u00f1ano is a postdoctoral researcher in planetary science and led a long-term study of Jupiter\u2019s belts and zones, including the discovery of a periodic pattern of equatorial disturbances that happen every 6-7 years.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/InternationalDayOfWomenInScience?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#InternationalDayOfWomenInScience<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AtO82Ll9pZ\">pic.twitter.com\/AtO82Ll9pZ<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Physics &amp; Astronomy, University of Leicester (@PhysicsUoL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhysicsUoL\/status\/1359833867201445888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 11, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Further pioneering work on the gas giants by PhD student Emma Thomas, as part of the H3+ team, has helped make the first ever observations of the infrared aurora in the atmosphere of Uranus \u2013 a signal which the team has sought in telescope observations of the planet for over twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Emma Thomas is a PhD student and part of our H3+ team who were the first to find the infrared aurora at Uranus (see image) by observing combined peaks of H3+ activity (seen by the red and yellow squares) and density. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/InternationalDayOfWomenInScience?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#InternationalDayOfWomenInScience<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jwWr0t1Gsw\">pic.twitter.com\/jwWr0t1Gsw<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Physics &amp; Astronomy, University of Leicester (@PhysicsUoL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhysicsUoL\/status\/1359844127999942658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 11, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Another PhD student, Rosie Tilbrook, is setting her sights even further afield with her work on exoplanet discovery. She has been using observations from the Next Generation Transit Survey to characterise 4 newly-discovered hot Jupiters \u2013 a class of gas giant exoplanets which orbit very close to their host star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rosie (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/planet_rosanna?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@planet_rosanna<\/a>) is a 3rd year PhD student who works on exoplanet discovery with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NextGenTransits?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NextGenTransits<\/a>. Recently, she&#39;s been working on a project to characterise 4 newly-discovered hot Jupiters, including studying their inflation (i.e. when planets are bigger than we&#39;d expect)! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BZMWGJC9Vb\">pic.twitter.com\/BZMWGJC9Vb<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Physics &amp; Astronomy, University of Leicester (@PhysicsUoL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhysicsUoL\/status\/1359834997570613251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 11, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the next instalment of this series, we&#8217;ll take a leap up the spatial scale to celebrate some of the incredible new developments in astronomy being led by women in the School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On February 11th the School of Physics and Astronomy joined in with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrations, using Twitter (@PhysicsUoL) to showcase some of the valuable, innovative research currently being led by women around the School. In a series of three posts, we&#8217;ll share some highlights from the day, taking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":256,"featured_media":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,14,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-planetary","category-profiles","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}