Karen Aplin

I currently manage the Physics Teaching Laboratories, and do research in experimental atmospheric and space physics. Before starting at Oxford in 2009 I was a research physicist in Space Science at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and still have close links with colleagues there. I hold a PhD in experimental atmospheric physics from the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, a BSc (Hons) in Applied Physics and Philosophy from Durham, and a diploma in music performance from Trinity College London. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

I coordinate all undergraduate experimental physics teaching within the Department, including liaising with the heads of each subject-based lab, and provide guidance to the lab demonstrators as well as managing the laboratory staff.

I lead the BA Group Industrial Project Programme, a new project scheme which aims to improve the employability of our third year BA students in the context of solving a real industrial problem.

Outside the normal day-to-day management of the labs I also supervise undergraduate student projects and train demonstrators. I am working to improve the practical training of our undergraduates by modernising equipment, improving documentation and consistency between each laboratory. Experimental work is in a unique position to teach a wide range of transferable and technical skills, relevant both in scientific and other careers, and I naturally emphasise this to our students.

My research interests cover atmospheric and space physics, with an emphasis on instrumentation and electrical processes. I am also interested in history and philosophy of science, and the broader cultural aspects of physics. Ongoing projects include:

• formation and measurement of cluster-ions naturally present in Earth's atmosphere, their electrical and optical properties, and relevance to pollution and the planet's radiative balance.
• atmospheric electrical processes elsewhere in the Solar System, (see my book Planetary Atmospheric Electricity) and related laboratory analogue and spacecraft experiments, in particular:
  
  • properties of charged aerosols and dust at planetary bodies like asteroids and the Moon (Co-I on the ATMS instrument for the Marco Polo mission, with Dr Neil Bowles)
  • volcanic lightning and electrical properties of ash, both for Earth and on Venus (with my DPhil student Martin Airey in the Earth Sciences Department).
• novel space instrumentation, particularly electron field emission, ion microthrusters and neutralisers relevant to fundamental physics missions and related technology
• measurement of cosmic rays and solar radiation as part of the Snowdon Weather Stations project since 2005 - a combined outreach and research activity

I am an editor of the new European Geophysical Union journal "History of Geo- and Space Sciences".

This section refers to my work with Paul Williams on weather in classical music, published in the Royal Meteorological Society's journal Weather and in the American Geophysical Union's Eos Transactions. Please cite us if you refer to the latest version of the database, and please make sure you have read the paper to understand the boundaries of the study before contacting me with omissions.

I was featured reporting on my research on Radio 4's PM programme on 19th October 2011, on Canadian national radio and on the Canadian Weather Network. Written reports were all over the web, notably Financial Times, New Scientist and Gramophone.