Women in Space: Manuela Temmer
Her whole world revolves around the sun, or more precisely, solar and heliospheric physics. Manuela Temmer has also been able to prove herself internationally with her expertise. That the moon influences the earth has been clear to many at the latest since the observation of high and low tides. Some people go even further: Many people follow the moon and its effects on the earth when cutting their hair, planting herbs or other activities. Whether superstition or really what to it, that is left to everyone. There is no physical basis for it. But what many do not know: Also the activity of the sun influences the earth, however completely differently as it thinks itself many. Astrophysicist Manuela Temmer is taking a closer look at precisely this topic.
The Austrian works at the Institute of Physics at Karl-Franzens University in Graz. Her research focuses on solar and heliospheric physics with application to the effects of solar activity on Earth (space weather) as well as on humans and robots operating throughout the solar system. She works to understand the physics behind the dynamical processes and interactions between flares, coronal mass ejections, and solar wind structures in interplanetary space. In addition to working in an interdisciplinary field across multiple physics domains, the validation and improvement of state-of-the-art space weather models through the use of remote sensing imagery data and in situ measurements from multiple vantage points is currently of great interest. This is a fascinating area of expertise that she has been involved with since the early 2000s.
After her studies in astronomy at the University of Graz, Temmer received her PhD in astrophysics in 2004, followed by a 2-year postdoctoral stay at the Hvar Observatory of the University of Zagreb (Croatia). Through an FWF individual project, she returned to Austria to the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Via an FFG APART grant, the astrophysicist finally returned to the University of Graz and was able to habilitate here within the framework of an FWF Elise Richter grant in 2015. She was also a senior research fellow at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto (USA). In October 2016, Temmer became an Associate Professor at the University of Graz, where she currently heads the "Heliospheric Physics" research group.
Among Manuela Temmer's greatest achievements, she counts the research results on high-energy processes in flare emissions and coronal mass ejections and the support of numerous international initiatives, which has also significantly contributed to the visibility of research in Austria. This is an important step because, in Temmer's opinion, Austria shines especially in the construction of nano-satellites, niche fields and the study of space weather, a field that encompasses interdisciplinary topics ranging from the sun, heliosphere, solar system, earth, earth's atmosphere to satellites. All these topics are covered by research groups in Graz.