Loughgiel man reaches the final of the Young Scientist of the Year Award

Local man, Eamon Scullion from Loughgiel, will be fighting to win the award for Young Scientist of the Year. Research carried out by Mr. Scullion at the Armagh Observatory and collaborators at the University of Sheffield, including Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen (formerly of Armagh Observatory), has been selected to present at the House of Commons to an audience including members of both Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

The 26 year old, a PhD student, is one of a select few Physicians from Northern Ireland to reach the finals of the competition.

Mr. Scullion began his career in Applied Maths and Physics at Queens University in Belfast. On completion of his Bachelors Degree he carried out a Masters Degree in joint Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.

Eamon is now completing his PhD in Applied Mathematics at the Armagh Observatory. This is a joint location Degree with the University of Sheffield. The overall aim of SET for BRITAIN encourages, supports and promotes Britain's early-stage research scientists who will be Britain's future scientific and technological leaders. Such researchers are a vital asset and investment for the U.K. and Northern Ireland.

The breakthrough discovery by the team at the University of Sheffield sheds light on mega-tsunamis on the Sun. The way in which the solar corona is heated to temperatures of over a million degrees has so far remained a long-standing puzzle of solar and space physics.

However, the team of experts at the University, along with members of the Solar Wave Theory Group and the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre, have addressed this enigma by discovering that Transition Region Quakes power the lower base of the solar corona. The quakes take the form of mega-tsunamis generated by narrow, rapidly rising plasma jets.

When these jets hit the transition region, they excite a wealth of Transition Region Quakes that have now been observed and modelled for the first time. The breakthrough has allowed the experts to estimate that at any moment of time there are about 60,000 of these mega-tsunamis splashing and crashing around the Transition Region. The next step for the team will be to investigate the properties of this torrential sea and focus on the details of transferring the tsunami energy into plasma heat.

Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen from the University of Sheffields Department of Applied Mathematics said: "This is indeed a very promising and fantastic result. We may now get a step closer to resolve one of the greatest puzzles of astrophysics - why the atmosphere of stars, like the Sun, is so much hotter than its surface.

"A number of international space missions are devoted to studying the heating of the solar atmosphere. This leap forward will certainly help us reveal the secrets of the Sun."

The team at the University of Sheffield and Armagh Observatory have wished hearty congratulations to Eamon and his colleagues on their selection for this prestigious event.

For further information contact, Danielle Scullion at [email protected] or phone on 07746203239.