Louise Harra

Louise Harra was born in County Armagh, and she attended later Banbridge Academy.^[4]

She graduated from The Queen's University of Belfast with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Maths and Physics and a PhD in Physics.

She was a professor of solar physics at University College, London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory^[5][6] until 2019, with much of her career being involved in space instruments. She was principal investigator (PI) of the EUV Imaging Spectrometer instrument on the Hinode spacecraft from 2006 to 2019. She is co-PI of the Solar Orbiter EUV Imager.

In 2019 she moved to take on the position of director at PMOD/WRC and affiliated professor at ETH Zurich.

Harra's research interests include solar flares and coronal mass ejections, formation of the solar wind and Sun-Earth connection. Her research makes use of spectroscopic and imaging observations to quantify the characteristics and behaviour of solar flares and the solar wind.

Harra has been involved in a number of space missions in her career. These include:

• The Japanese/US/UK space mission Yohkoh, Instrument Scientist based in Japan.
• The JAXA/NASA/UK/ESA mission Hinode, Principal Investigator of the EUV Imaging Spectrometer.
• The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission,^[2][7] co-Principal Investigator for the EUV Imager.

Harra has given radio and TV interviews. These include:

• 2014 Radio 4, 'In our time' interview with Melvyn Bragg^[8]
• 2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Science Show with Robyn Williams