VT SuperDARN student Xueling Shi defended her doctoral disseration on Thursday, April 18 to an examining committee of six professors. Xueling is advised by Drs. Jo Baker and Mike Ruohoniemi. She is particularly well known for her work on ULF pulsations that combines observations from radars, satellites, and magnetometers and has developed many collaborations. Xueling arrived at Virginia Tech having graduated with her MSc from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing as a student of Prof. Tao Chen. During her time at Virginia Tech she won a prestigious NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship. The title of Xueling's thesis is 'Occurrence Statistics and Driving Mechanisms of Ionospheric Ultra-Low Frequency Waves Observed by SuperDARN Radars'.

Congratulations, Xueling!

(Photo credit: Dr. D. Lin)

On April 25 a group of visitors was led by Kevin Sterne to make a tour of the Blackstone SuperDARN radar. Drs. Nozomu Nishitani and Tomo Hori and graduate student Kento Oya from ISEE Nagoya University were joined by Dr. Erxiao Liu from Hangzhou Dianzi University. The photograph shows the Japanese visitors with Kevin and towers of the two arrays and the equipment shelter in the background.

(Photo credit and missing from photo: Dr. Erxiao Liu)

The VT SuperDARN group is hosting a one-week visit by colleagues from the SuperDARN group at the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research (ISEE) Nagoya University. The visitors are Dr. Nozomu Nishitani (SuperDARN PI), Dr. Tomo Hori, and Mr. Kento Oya (graduate student). Shared research interests, radar operations and planning for the SuperDARN collaboration are being discussed. Drs. Nishitani and Hori made presentations to the Space@VT graduate student seminar on April 23. All three participated in a trip to the site of the Blackstone radar lead by Mr. Kevin Sterne. Our visitors were greeted by the new director of Space@VT, Prof. Scott Bailey.
Welcome Nozomu, Tomo, and Kento!
(Shown in photo: Bharat Kunduri, Jo Baker, Mike Ruohoniemi, Scott Bailey, Nozomu Nishitani, Tomo Hori, Kento Oya, Kevin Sterne)
Photo credit: Dr. Xueling Shi

Dr.Tsutomu Nagatsuma has announced that the web site is open for registration and submission of abstracts to the 2019 SuperDARN Workshop which will be held at the Highland Resort Hotel & Spa in Fujiyoshida, Japan, June 2-7, 2019. The Workshop is sponsored by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), the Nagoya University Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research (ISEE), the International Center for Space Weather Science and Education Kyushu University (ICSWSE), and the University of Electro-Communications (UEC). The Workshop website is http://superdarn2019.nict.go.jp/. Note the following due dates:
Abstracts: EXTENDED TO APRIL 19
Early bird registration: April 27
Accomodation booking: April 28

The 2019 ISR Summer School, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (U.S.) and the EISCAT Scientific Association (Europe) will be held August 12-17 at Pikku-Syöte, about an hour’s drive from Oulu, Finland. The school provides students with hands-on experience in designing and running experiments at incoherent scatter radar facilities. During this summer school, students will have the opportunity to run experiments with the EISCAT incoherent scatter radars (ISRs) and use data from multiple ISR observatories, such as Poker Flat (PFISR), Millstone Hill, Arecibo and Jicamarca.

The ISR summer school is suitable for graduate and advanced undergraduate students and attendance is limited. For most students attending institutions within the United States, travel, housing and meals will be provided. For post-docs and students outside of the United States, funding will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Link to the program web site at https://amisr.com/workshop

The deadline for application submission is 19 April 2019. Notice of acceptance will be sent to participants by 3 May 2019.

There are opportunities for undergrad students to participate as summer interns in research carried out by Space@VT research groups. The website for Summer 2019 applications is now open. Please apply using the applicable link below:

VT login required: https://goo.gl/forms/ckXw76SGuvY5Vntu1

External applicants: https://goo.gl/forms/s1qdiItra6Mpik6C3

More information about Space@VT can be found at http://www.space.vt.edu including a high-level listing of research topics at https://space.vt.edu/research.html.