| Job: | Research Fellow, University of Wales in Aberystwyth |
| Born: | Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1964 |
Andy Breen - 'Doc' to some. Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1964 grew up in Sunderland, been based in Wales since 1982. Until a couple of months ago I was working at the Max- Planck Institute for Aeronomy in northern Germany (we solar physicists do travel around!), but now I'm back in Wales as a research fellow at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth.
I use radio measurements from radio telescopes in the arctic to study the Sun's atmosphere (the Solar Wind), so I spend quite a lot of time in the north of Norway each summer (I said solar physics means you travel a lot!) - the good thing about being up there is that I can observe the Sun 24 hours a day, as it never sets in the summer. The bad thing is that it's hard to know when to sleep...
I use measurements from the instruments on SOHO too, so I'm working with quite a few people at NASA I'm also working with teams in Japan, India, Germany and California on comparing measurements using different methods and seeing how well the results agree with models - fortunately I can do a lot of this work by e-mail and the internet.
Doing solar physics does mean I get to see a lot of places - I spend a month or two in the arctic every summer, running the telescope network there - it's very beautiful up there and there are a lot of animals that you don't get here: last summer I saw an Elk (Moose) just outside my office window one evening, and there was an arctic fox outside the accomodation block one morning. I keep meaning to combine these trips with a holiday, but the nearest I've got to that so far was when two friends came to visit me up there last summer. I've worked in Germany and (for a short while) in the U.S., and I've been to conferences in Germany, Austria, Finland, France, Norway, Holland and the U.S. - Vienna is, I think, the city I've been to that I like best - so far (I'm going to Florence next year, so I might change my mind).
When I was about 12 I saw the northern lights - the aurora - and wanted to know what it was and where it came from. And I'm still trying to answer those questions. I reckon that I'm very lucky - people pay me money to live somewhere I like and answer questions I want to know the answers to myself...
| I sail in the summer - I've got an old 'Albacore' dinghy which I work on over the winter and sail in the summer. I do a lot of photography, read a lot and listen to music (generally loud music!). I'm fascinated by local history (and history in general) - and I'm researching and building a model based on part of the old harbour in Aberystwyth. And my best friend and I are running up a list of good-restaurants-visited. Some hobbies are best shared! |
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I like the one from Arthur Eddington - the man who worked out where the Sun's energy came from - he & his girlfriend were out walking at night and she said how beautiful the stars were - and her said "Yes, and tonight I'm the only one who understands how they shine" - to me that sums up how it feels to have found out something new (though I've never found out anything that big!).
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