MIST

Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial

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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
Full details can be found here: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/royal-astronomical-society-unveils-2023-award-winners.

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.

Notes from MIST Council telecon 6/9/12

6 September 2012, 09:35-11:00

Participants: Emma Woodfield, David Southwood, Rob Fear, Mike Hapgood, Mario Bisi (from 10:40)

  1. Autumn MIST meeting
    1. In RAS Lecture Theatre on 30 November
    2. Rob and Emma will act as organisers and issue call soon
    3. Invite Tim Horbury to give keynote talk on TRIO-CINEMA (cubesat to launch very soon, ULF wave studies)
    4. Think on other options for another keynote talk and circulate ideas to MIST Council by Monday 10th
  2. Dungey Lecture and associated meetings
    1. First Dungey lecture will be given at the RAS ordinary meeting on 11 January 2013, after the specialist meeting organised by Mark and Mervyn ("Integrated Atmospheric and Space Science")
    2. RAS will agree choice of first lecturer at Council meeting on 12 October
    3. There will also be a separate meeting to celebrate Jim's 90th birthday – on 10 January in Geol Soc lecture theatre. Programme to be arranged once the Dungey lecturer is known.
    4. David will prepare a note about these events – for distribution to MIST list.
  3. Geophysics Forum
    1. RAS and other Learned Societies are organising a Geophysics Forum similar to Astronomy Forum, a forum where heads of departments can talk with funding bodies: NERC plus HEFCE and its siblings
    2. Duncan Wingham (NERC CEO) is supporting this
    3. There will be two fora – essentially one for fluids (oceanography, atmospheric science, STP, …) and one for solids (internal geomagnetism, solid earth geophysics, …)
    4. For MIST we will need to watch the fluid/solid interface in terms of geomagnetism, e.g. groups like Liverpool and BGS.
    5. Main membership will be university departments. Letters of invitation have now gone out to HoDs.
    6. But invite RC centes (BAS, BGS, RAL Space) and Met Office as observers
    7. Fora attendance needs to be kept to level (say 30) that enables effective meetings. So may need care where there are multiple groups in one university, e.g. UCL/MSSL. This has been an issue in Astronomy Forum.
  4. NAM2013
    1. Mike will contact St Andrews to check the state of their planning – and will cc Rob Massey at RAS. He will also note our views about the need for a good poster session and clear prior rules on abstract submission – and explore if there is scope for a rich programme of MIST sessions. If we can do that, we don’t need a separate MIST event in the Spring, especially given the Dungey Lecture and associated meetings in January.
    2. Depending on this response, Mike will then encourage MIST community to think about sessions for St Andrews NAM.
  5. Face-to-face meeting
    1. Mike will poll to find dates for a face-to-face MIST Council meeting soon after 12 October.
  6. Website
    1. Need to update current pages. Rob will see Andrew Walsh this weekend and ask if it is now possible to authorise other MIST people to add items using the RAS Content Management System.
  7. Rishbeth Prize
    1. Mike will check with Mike Cruise if he can fund a third prize this year so we can deal with the tie in the voting