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March 18, 2008
For today's activities we highlight three scientists who have different perspectives
on the Sun as a star.
Learn more about them from the links below.
Dr. Mandy Hagenaar,
Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory
I was born in 1971, in the city of Delft, the Netherlands. Nowadays, I live in San Francisco, and work at Lockheed-Martin Solar and Astrophysics Labs, in Palo Alto.
After finishing high school in 1989, I went to study physics at the University of Utrecht. The city of Utrecht is a very old, beautiful college town, with a great atmosphere, which is why I chose the University of Utrecht. I chose to study physics, because I was interested in high-energy physics and particle physics.
After 3 years, I decided to switch to astronomy. The curricula for physics and astrophysics overlap to a very large extent, so the change didn't take much extra work. The reason I chose astrophysics, rather than physics, was that I liked the atmosphere among astronomers. At first, I actually wanted to go into cosmology. After taking some high-level classes of "real" stellar and solar astrophysics, I got fascinated by solar physics.
I have never been one of those "star-gazers"; I still look at stars, and especially the Sun, as a physicist. The Sun plays a special role in astrophysics, because it is still the only star that we can look at in detail: it is literally in our backyard. When looking at the Sun with special telescopes, from Earth or from space, we really see things happening. On the solar surface, we see the gas moving around like a pan of boiling soup. In this "soup" we see magnetic fields moving around like noodles.
In February 1995, I finished my master's thesis, to get the uniquely Dutch degree of doctorandus [Latin, freely translated as ``he who is to become a doctor'']. In March of the same year, I started my PhD research, with the subject ``Flows and Magnetic Patterns on the Solar Surface''. One month after I started, I traveled to the USA, to work with my (Dutch) thesis advisor, in Palo Alto, California. During the 4 years of PhD research, I ``commuted'' between Amsterdam and San Francisco: I traveled 7 times to Palo Alto, and altogether spent roughly 1.5 year in the USA. In May 1999, I graduated, and in June I moved to San Francisco. Presently, I do research in Palo Alto, still looking at magnetic patterns on the solar surface. I try to let a computer spot locations where new magnetic field emerges from below the visible surface. This happens all the time, everywhere on the Sun.
The Sun is an average, rather small, star, like many other stars in the Universe, but it is the only star we can study in detail. Therefore, detailed knowledge of the Sun is so important. Traditionally, the University of Utrecht focused on solar physics. However, many young scientists prefer something more exotic, such as black holes or the Universe.
Unfortunately, the field of solar physics has shrunk significantly in the Netherlands. One disadvantage of being a scientist is the lack of permanent positions, for young scientists, mostly in Europe. A consequence is, for example, a ``brain-drain'' from many European countries. Also, some good scientists have to leave the field and find a different job.
Another disadvantage of being a scientist is that, in many cases, one gets paid less doing academic research, than working for industry. The advantage is that only a select group of highly motivated people stays in fundamental research.
A typical day for me involves a lot of computer programming, in order to analyze observations of the Sun, taken by the MDI instrument on the SOHO satellite. With the naked eye, it may be easy to recognize certain patterns. However, it is a whole different thing to teach this to a computer: the complex thinking process inside the human brain needs to be divided into small steps, and explained to a computer.
When I find something new, I discuss it with other scientists in my workplace. They can suggest solutions for problems, or criticize my results. Writing down reports of the work enables other people to understand, reproduce, and verify the results.
It is very important to publish the work in papers, that (a) formulate the problem, (b) describe the work that other scientists have done, in the past, to understand it, (c) explain which data were used, and (d) what method(s) were applied, (e) which conclusions may be drawn from the analysis, and everything that may have possibly gone wrong.
To me, writing can be very frustrating: sometimes my writing is absolutely clear to me, but totally incomprehensible for other people. On the other hand, this also makes it more satisfying to finish a paper and get it published.
Personally, I like the international character of science: you meet people from all over the world, and get to travel to places you would otherwise never see. I have to admit, though, that I love traveling anyway.
Being a woman in solar physics has both bad and good sides, like everything.
One advantage I have noticed is, for example, that people easily recognize
the 10 women between 100 men. Therefore, contact seems to be a little
easier for a female. The disadvantage of this very same observation
is that everything, positive or negative, is more notable. 
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