Petrus C. Martens: News Items
2018
I was appointed, as sole GSU representative, to the
Astronomy & Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC).
The 13 member AAAC advises the NASA Administrator, the Director of the NSF, the Secretary
of Energy and Congressional committees on issues pertinent to astronomy and astrophysics.
My graduate student Sushant Mahajan again won a
prize: This time for "Best Young Person Poster" at
Symposion 340 of the International Astronomical
Union in Jaipur, India.
2017
Answered questions from the 10,000 strong audience for several hours during the August 21 total
solar eclipse festivities at the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School campus, televised live
by Channel 11, Atlanta.
My graduate student Sushant Mahajan won the
prize for best student poster at Symposion
335 of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), held in Exeter England, in July 2017,
see
2016
Interview with
Atlanta's WSB-TV on "Space Weather: How It Affects Us Here on Earth", part of a segment also focused on CHARA.
2015
GSU's press release on the invitation of myself and Rafal Angryk to the White House for a meeting on
Space Weather on October 29.
Interview
with Atlanta's WSB-TV on the possible dangers from large solar flares.
2014
GSU
press release on my team winning a $ 1.2 M NASA Grand Challenge grant for
developing a
prototype system for predicting the solar cycle.
And
another GSU press release on Prof. Rafal Angryk from GSU Computer Science and myself winning a $ 1.5 M
NSF grant for "Big Data" research in solar astronomy.
2013
"The Problem with Coronal Loops." My former graduate student Henry Winter's
research -- jointly with myself -- was
featured at a
Press Conference during the annual meeting of the AAS Solar Physics
Division in Bozeman MT, in July 2013.
2012
I was a panel member in the first AAS press conference,
"What's New Under the Sun"
at the 220th AAS meeting in Anchorage, AK, in June 2012.
The
2012 Karen Harvey award has been won by my friend and close
collaborator Dibyendu Nandi,
"for a significant contribution to the study
of the Sun early in a person's professional career".
Nandi delivered his prize
lecture at the AAS/SPD meeting in Anchorage Alaska, June 2012.
"The Solar Return", radio interview on solar feature recognition,
global warming, and the end of the Maya calendar.
2011
The
2011 AGU F. L. Scarf award goes to my former graduate student
Andres Munoz-Jaramillo. The award is given
"annually
to a recent Ph.D. recipient for outstanding dissertation research that contributes
directly to solar planetary sciences".
"Researchers Crack the Mystery of the Spotless Sun", a NASA
press conference on the occasion of a
paper in Nature,
where Nandy, Munoz, and
myself provide a plausible explanation for the recent very long and very deep solar
minimum,
with an absence of Sunspots of nearly two years, something that has
not happened since 1913. The NASA press conference
led to an amazing media
response internationally, such as
this one,
and MSU topped it off with its own press release.
2010
"The Solar Dynamo: Plasma
Flows". Movie of the simulations by my graduate student Andres Munoz-Jaramillo
of plasma
flows inside the Sun that drive the evolutions of the solar magnetic field.