MIST

Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial

Latest news

Winners of Rishbeth Prizes 2023

We are pleased to announce that following Spring MIST 2023 the Rishbeth Prizes this year are awarded to Sophie Maguire (University of Birmingham) and Rachel Black (University of Exeter).

Sophie wins the prize for the best MIST student talk which was entitled “Large-scale plasma structures and scintillation in the high-latitude ionosphere”. Rachel wins the best MIST poster prize, for a poster entitled “Investigating different methods of chorus wave identification within the radiation belts”. Congratulations to both Sophie and Rachel!

As prize winners, Sophie and Rachel will be invited to write articles for Astronomy & Geophysics, which we look forward to reading.

MIST Council extends their thanks to the University of Birmingham for hosting the Spring MIST meeting 2023, and to the Royal Astronomical Society for their generous and continued support of the Rishbeth Prizes.

Nominations for MIST Council

We are pleased to open nominations for MIST Council. There are two positions available (detailed below), and elected candidates would join Beatriz Sanchez-Cano, Jasmine Kaur Sandhu, Andy Smith, Maria-Theresia Walach, and Emma Woodfield on Council. The nomination deadline is Friday 26 May.

Council positions open for nomination

  • MIST Councillor - a three year term (2023 - 2026). Everyone is eligible.
  • MIST Student Representative - a one year term (2023 - 2024). Only PhD students are eligible. See below for further details.

About being on MIST Council


If you would like to find out more about being on Council and what it can involve, please feel free to email any of us (email contacts below) with any of your informal enquiries! You can also find out more about MIST activities at mist.ac.uk.

Rosie Hodnett (current MIST Student Representative) has summarised their experience on MIST Council below:
"I have really enjoyed being the PhD representative on the MIST council and would like to encourage other PhD students to nominate themselves for the position. Some of the activities that I have been involved in include leading the organisation of Autumn MIST, leading the online seminar series and I have had the opportunity to chair sessions at conferences. These are examples of what you could expect to take part in whilst being on MIST council, but the council will welcome any other ideas you have. If anyone has any questions, please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..”

How to nominate

If you would like to stand for election or you are nominating someone else (with their agreement!) please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Friday 26 May. If there is a surplus of nominations for a role, then an online vote will be carried out with the community. Please include the following details in the nomination:
  • Name
  • Position (Councillor/Student Rep.)
  • Nomination Statement (150 words max including a bit about the nominee and your reasons for nominating. This will be circulated to the community in the event of a vote.)
 
MIST Council contact details

Rosie Hodnett - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mathew Owens - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Beatriz Sanchez-Cano - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jasmine Kaur Sandhu - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Andy Smith - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Maria-Theresia Walach - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Emma Woodfield - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
MIST Council email - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

RAS Awards

The Royal Astronomical Society announced their award recipients last week, and MIST Council would like to congratulate all that received an award. In particular, we would like to highlight the following members of the MIST Community, whose work has been recognised:
  • Professor Nick Achilleos (University College London) - Chapman Medal
  • Dr Oliver Allanson (University of Birmingham) - Fowler Award
  • Dr Ravindra Desai (University of Warwick) - Winton Award & RAS Higher Education Award
  • Professor Marina Galand (Imperial College London) - James Dungey Lecture

New MIST Council 2021-

There have been some recent ingoings and outgoings at MIST Council - please see below our current composition!:

  • Oliver Allanson, Exeter (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2024 -- Chair
  • Beatriz Sánchez-Cano, Leicester (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2024
  • Mathew Owens, Reading (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2023
  • Jasmine Sandhu, Northumbria (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2023 -- Vice-Chair
  • Maria-Theresia Walach, Lancaster (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2022
  • Sarah Badman, Lancaster (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), to 2022
    (co-opted in 2021 in lieu of outgoing councillor Greg Hunt)

Charter amendment and MIST Council elections open

Nominations for MIST Council open today and run through to 8 August 2021! Please feel free to put yourself forward for election – the voting will open shortly after the deadline and run through to the end of August. The positions available are:

  • 2 members of MIST Council
  • 1 student representative (pending the amendment below passing)

Please email nominations to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 8 August 2021. Thank you!

Charter amendment

We also move to amend the following articles of the MIST Charter as demonstrated below. Bold type indicates additions and struck text indicates deletions. Please respond to the email on the MIST mailing list before 8 August 2021 if you would like to object to the amendment; MIST Charter provides that it will pass if less than 10% of the mailing list opposes its passing. 

4.1  MIST council is the collective term for the officers of MIST and consists of six individuals and one student representative from the MIST community.

5.1 Members of MIST council serve terms of three years, except for the student representative who serves a term of one year.

5.2 Elections will be announced at the Spring MIST meeting and voting must begin within two months of the Spring MIST meeting. Two slots on MIST council will be open in a given normal election year, alongside the student representative.

5.10 Candidates for student representative must not have submitted their PhD thesis at the time that nominations close.

Navigating Zoomland: Outreach & Public Engagement

By Megan Maunder

I’m a passionate believer in making science engaging and accessible, thus outreach and public engagement have made up a large part of my ‘extra-curricular’ activities since starting my PhD. As well as a personal passion, getting involved in outreach and public engagement is a huge motivator for me; I am reminded of why I chose to pursue my PhD, and I enjoy the challenge of answering questions and finding new ways to explain concepts to curious minds.

Lockdown has presented unique new challenges in how to best deliver sessions and keep participants engaged, especially as we are spending more time at our desks, staring at screens, and many of us are now suffering with ‘Zoom Fatigue’. Whilst I’ve really missed the face-to-face interactions with students, teachers, and adults alike, I have found new ways to get involved and engage others. Below I’ve compiled some ideas and my own experiences about how to get involved, how to decide what content to develop or projects to take on.

Top Tips

  • Ask around, talk to other people already involved and see what you might like to get involved in and what money is available for new projects. Providing meaningful paid outreach opportunities for PhD students in line with teaching assistant work, rather than relying on unpaid voluntary contributions, is one way some institutions are trying to combat gender gaps. I’d also recommend talking to your supervisor, my supervisor already had some resources and experiments she could loan me and her experience with outreach was invaluable when I was preparing and developing new sessions.
  • Figure out why you want to get involved, and what you hope to get out of it. Personally, I enjoy the interaction, learning process, and finding new approaches to articulating ideas over creating graphics, editing, and developing new ways to share content, but I know others who are the complete opposite.
  • Use other peoples platforms*! I strongly recommend getting involved in existing projects and sessions to start. This was key in developing my own sessions and style, and it gave me a better idea of my strengths, and the type of work I want to be involved in. Even if it ends up being a long-term commitment, there’s a lot to be said for not having to maintain your own platform particularly if you would rather be an occasional contributor and aren’t able to commit to developing a project long term. (*I’ve mentioned a few in this piece, but my advice is to contact people working on projects you want to be involved in to find out if/how you can contribute.)
  • Finding a balance: I make sure to realistically evaluate how much of my own time I want to spend on a project, and when I am able to contribute. If I said yes to everything, I’d have no free time. Make sure to consider how much time is involved in preparation and development, delivering the content, and then any time spent on post-production like editing.

Activities and Experience

I’ve listed a few ways I’ve explored lockdown-outreach over the past few months, accompanied by my own experience with it.

Pre-Recorded Videos

Before university, I worked for skincare brand which regularly required me to produce content and I became used to filming and preparing videos so I thought this would be fairly simple. However, when it came to preparing and filming my own content solely by myself, I was at a loss. Talking straight down a camera, without a cameraman or audience was a little too surreal for me. I was a complete novice when it came to editing and the technology side of producing this type of content, which meant that it took a lot longer than anticipated. Broadly it went well, I’ve had some great feedback and it was a nice way to include content in a wider session but it was a lot of work and I really missed the interaction I normally get in similar face-to-face sessions. I’m not sure I would do it again, but I do have a new found respect for You-Tubers!

Interactive Online Sessions

My experience with preparing and delivering interactive sessions it that it needs to have both variety and a clear structure, to ensure it’s engaging and accessible. It is important to check any access needs and set out etiquette: microphones off unless speaking and no requirement or expectation for cameras to be turned on in main sessions, only in smaller interactive groups/breakout rooms. Depending on the purpose of the session I’ve used a combination of pre-prepared tasks/worksheets, Q&A sessions, and some lecture-style content, either pre-recorded or live. I much prefer interactive sessions as I enjoy it a lot more and find it much more rewarding. Running my own sessions, can initially take up a fair chunk of time, but once they are set up, they are easily be adapted and reused. If you’re keen to run these I’d recommend finding out who currently organises and runs sessions at your institution or within the local community. I developed many of these in partnership with my department’s Widening Participation Team; they organise a range of events  from single days to residential courses and are always looking for new sessions and leaders, we are also paid at the standard teaching assistant rate for preparation and delivery. If you’re looking to get involved in an external, existing project I can recommend ‘I’m a Scientist, Stay at Home!’, an online chat based activity. I found that it was a really low time-commitment and being asked questions about my research is a great motivator.

Panel Events

This is perhaps the one thing that I feel hasn’t vastly changed or needed a re-think or re-structure moving to online sessions. I really love being asked to do panel events, not only sharing my experiences but learning from others. Almost every panel I’ve been on (both related to my PhD and outreach work, and in other aspects of my life) has provided a space for meaningful discussion and exposure to new ideas. As an invited speaker, I’ve found it’s low time-commitment, as it doesn’t require a huge amount of preparation however, I imagine this isn’t the case if you want to run your own panel event. If you’re keen to get involved in this, my advice is get in touch with local groups that organise these type of events explaining what you feel you can contribute. Every year my university runs a ‘Women in STEM’ event for local schools and are always looking for a variety of both PhD students and staff to be on the panel.

Blogging/Written Content

Lockdown has driven a need for many people and groups to curate more online written content. I’ve since written on a variety of topics from own research and outreach experiences, to maintaining health and wellbeing as a PhD student. I love writing, particularly when I’m not stressing about how my plots looks, or if I’ve triple checked my results. I find it an easy medium in which to curate my own voice, fact check, and spread content that the reader can consume in their own time. MIST Student’s Corner is great for this if you want to try your hand at blogging without maintaining your own page!

Pod-casting/Auditory Content

This is a growing medium has has attracted a lot more people during lockdown, especially as its something you can consume whilst doing the dishes, driving, or going for a walk. I’ve not yet been involved in this but I’m hoping to have a few things lined up going forward. For me, this is definitely something I plan to use someone else’s platform for, as I don’t have the passion or time to set up and maintain my own whilst looking for new content and guests!

 

I hope you find this useful and if you would like to discuss anything further you can This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..