It is with deep sadness that we have to inform the MIST community of the untimely death after a short illness of Nigel Wade who worked in the Radio and Space Plasma Physics (RSPP) group at Leicester for over 30 years.
Nigel was one of the unsung heroes of our research field. His role in the RSPP group was first as a programmer working on EISCAT data analysis, then as the RSPP group’s computer systems manager and more recently he had been involved in the code development for the operations of the MIXS instrument on Bepi-Colombo. During his time at Leicester Nigel has provided computing support to well over a hundred academic staff, postdoctoral staff and postgraduate students, a number of whom are still in the research field today. In the 1980s and 1990s Nigel was also heavily involved in supporting EISCAT campaigns in Scandinavia and indeed was campaign manager on a number of occasions. He will be missed by all of us.