Rate My Professor Emma Bunce

Professor Emma Bunce is the Director of the Institute for Space and Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester. Previously, she was Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy (2020-2022) and President of the Royal Astronomical Society (2020-2022). Her academic career at Leicester started as a PPARC Postdoctoral Fellow in Physics and Astronomy (2003-2007), and she was appointed Professor in 2009. In her current roles, she provides strategy and direction to the Institute's Research Theme Leads for Space for Society, Life in Space, Space Environment, and Space Technology, and mentors the Institute Fellows. Additional commitments include serving as Astronomy Trustee for the Royal Museums Greenwich (2024-present) and the University's Trustee for the National Space Centre (2014-present).

Bunce's research interests centre on the giant rotating magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, the mechanisms generating dynamic auroral emissions in their upper atmospheres, Mercury’s magnetosphere, Jupiter's polar magnetosphere via the NASA Juno mission, and Saturn’s magnetosphere via the NASA Cassini mission (ended 2017). She is the lead Principal Investigator for the Leicester-led Mercury Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer (MIXS) instrument on the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury (arrival 2026), Principal Investigator for MIXS, and Co-Investigator on the sister SIXS instrument (PI: Emilia Kilpua), as well as J-MAG and UVS instruments on the ESA JUICE mission. She serves as European Co-Chair for the ESA JUICE-NASA Europa Clipper Steering Committee and is a member of the ESA L4 Expert Committee. Her impactful work has been recognised with numerous honours, including OBE for services to Astronomy and Science Education (King’s New Year Honours 2023), EGU David Bates Medal for exceptional contribution to Planetary Science (2022), RAS Chapman Medal for outstanding contributions to gas giant planets (2018), Philip Leverhulme Prize for Astronomy & Astrophysics (2011), RAS Group Achievement Award for Cassini Magnetometer Team (2014), NASA Group Achievement Award for Cassini Magnetometer Team (2009), and Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2018-2022). Key publications encompass Nichols et al., 'Periodic emission within Jupiter’s main auroral oval' (Geophys. Res. Lett., 2017), James et al., 'Interplanetary magnetic field properties and timescales near Mercury’s orbit' (J. Geophys. Res., 2017), and Cowley et al., 'Magnetosphere-Ionosphere coupling at Jupiter: Expectations for Juno Perijove 1 from a steady-state axisymmetric physical model' (Geophys. Res. Lett., 2017).