NEWS Hermann Opgenoorth, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics, is awarded the 2023 Julius Bartels Medal for his outstanding contribution to space weather research.
Hermann Opgenoorth.
ImageLena Junell OpgenoorthThe Julius Bartel Medal is awarded annually by the European Geosciences Union, EGU.
Hermann Opgenoorth has played a prominent role in space research since the 1970s. His broad research interests have covered areas such as the magnetosphere, the ionosphere and solar winds.
“I am honoured and at the same time encouraged by this award”, says Hermann Opgenoorth.
During his long career, he has been, among other things, Head of the Solar Terrestrial Physics research programme at the Swedish Institute for Space Physics, IRF, in Uppsala and Head of the Solar System Missions Division at the European Space Agency, ESA. In 1993 he became a professor at Umeå University. Since 2019, he is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics and he continues to be a driving force in space research.
In the motivation for the award, the EGU writes that Hermann Opgenoorth has not only contributed to research on substorms and space weather, but has also exercised strong leadership in international collaborations. He is specially well-known for his advocacy for coordinated measurements between spacecraft and the ground.
“Just this week, I will be going to the UN in Vienna to propose a new global space weather coordination and organization in collaboration between COSPAR, WMO and ISES to their Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). So this comes just in time to add weight to our proposal”, he says.
Most recently, Hermann Opgenoorth has focused on explaining the sudden, violent changes in Earth's magnetic field, produced during geomagnetic storms. His work has resulted in more than 200 publications and he is frequently invited to give presentations at international conferences.