Michele Dougherty facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michele Dougherty
|
|
|---|---|
Dougherty in April 2015
|
|
| Born |
Michele Karen Dougherty
1962 (age 62–63) |
| Alma mater | University of Natal |
| Known for | Magnetometer instrumentation for the Cassini-Huygens mission |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields |
|
| Institutions | Imperial College London |
Michele Karen Dougherty, born in 1962, is a British space scientist. She is a professor of space physics at Imperial College London. She leads exciting missions to planets like Saturn and Jupiter. She is also the main scientist for J-MAG. This is a special tool called a magnetometer for the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission. The JUICE spacecraft launched in April 2023.
Professor Dougherty will become the President of the Institute of Physics in October 2025. She was also chosen to lead the Science and Technology Facilities Council in September 2024.
Becoming a Space Scientist
Michele Dougherty first became interested in space when she was ten years old. Her dad built a telescope, and through it, she saw the amazing moons of Jupiter and Saturn. This sparked her curiosity about the universe.
She studied at the University of Natal in South Africa. In 1989, she earned her PhD. Her research was about how waves and tiny particles interact in different materials.
Exploring Space and Planets
After her studies, Professor Dougherty moved to Germany. She worked on applied mathematics there. In 1991, she joined Imperial College London. By 2004, she became a Professor of Space Physics. She teaches students and also leads important research. She is now the head of the Physics Department at Imperial College London.
Professor Dougherty is the main scientist for two big space missions. One was the NASA Cassini spacecraft. This mission orbited Saturn for many years. The other is the ESA JUICE spacecraft. This mission will orbit Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon.
Her work with the Cassini mission led to an amazing discovery. They found that Saturn's moon Enceladus has an atmosphere. This atmosphere contains water and other chemicals. This discovery was very important. It opened up new ideas in the search for extraterrestrial life in our Solar System.
The Royal Society recognized Professor Dougherty for her leadership. She led the international Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. As the main scientist for the magnetic field tool on Cassini, she helped us learn so much. Her work greatly improved our understanding of Saturn and its many Moons of Saturn. She remembers the close flybys of Saturn's moons as a career highlight. It was exciting and a bit scary to watch the data come in!
Before Cassini, Professor Dougherty worked on other missions. She was part of the magnetometer team for the Ulysses mission to Jupiter. She also worked on data from the Galileo uncrewed spacecraft that explored Jupiter.
She often gives talks to the public. She also appears on TV and radio to share her knowledge.
Awards and Special Honours
Professor Dougherty has received many awards for her important work.
- In 2007, she won the Chree Medal and Prize. This was for her work on planetary magnetic fields and how they interact with the solar wind.
- In 2008, she received the Hughes Medal from the Royal Society. This award was for her clever use of magnetic data. This data helped discover the atmosphere on Enceladus. This discovery changed how we think about moons in the Solar System. She was only the second woman to receive this medal.
- In 2012, she was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honour for scientists. The UK Science Council also named her one of the top 100 living UK scientists.
- In 2017, she won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for geophysics. She was the fifth woman to receive this special award.
- In 2018, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). This was for her contributions to science research in the UK. She also won the Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics that year.
- In 2019, she became a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
Professor Dougherty has also helped the UK space industry. She led the Science Programme Advisory Committee of the UK Space Agency from 2014 to 2016.
See also
- List of women in leadership positions on astronomical instrumentation projects
