Clare Parnell facts for kids

Clare Elizabeth Parnell, born in 1970, is a British scientist who studies space and math. She is an astrophysicist and a mathematician. Dr. Parnell studies the Sun and its powerful magnetic fields. This includes the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the Solar corona. She also looks at how magnetic fields connect and disconnect in hot gases, known as plasma. She is a professor of mathematics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Becoming a Space Mathematician

Clare Parnell was born in Essex, England. When she was a child, math was her favorite and easiest subject. She went to The Ridgeway School and Swindon Technical College.

In 1988, she started studying at the University of Wales College Cardiff. She first thought about studying both chemistry and math. But after one year, she decided to focus only on mathematics.

University Studies and Research

In 1991, Clare finished her first degree in mathematics at Cardiff with top honors. After that, she moved to the University of St Andrews in Scotland. There, she became a doctoral student, which means she worked on her Ph.D. Her research was about the physics of the Sun. She earned her Ph.D. in 1994.

Dr. Parnell continued her research at St Andrews. For a short time in 1996–1997, she also did research at Stanford University in the United States. In 2002, she became a lecturer at St Andrews. Later, in 2011, she was promoted to a full professor. From 2009 to 2013, she led the Applied Mathematics division at the university.

Awards and Achievements

Clare Parnell has received special awards for her important work.

Fowler Prize

In 2006, she won the Fowler Prize from the Royal Astronomical Society. This award is for young scientists who have made great achievements in astronomy and geophysics. She won it for her research on how the Sun's outer atmosphere, the Solar corona, gets so hot.

Philip Leverhulme Prize

In 2007, she received a Philip Leverhulme Prize. This prize is given to talented researchers in the UK. She earned it for her ongoing work in solar physics, which is the study of the Sun.

Beyond the Lab

Outside of her scientific work, Clare Parnell loves to climb mountains. She chose to study at the University of Wales partly because it was close to mountains.

While she was a student at St Andrews, she climbed all 277 peaks in Scotland known as Munros. These are mountains in Scotland that are over 3,000 feet (914.4 meters) tall. She also has two children.