Name: Dr. Clare Parnell

Job: Royal Astronomical Society's Sir Norman Lockyer Fellow (1998)

Born: 1970 in Essex

Education Info: I attended Ridgeway Comprehensive and then Swindon Technical 
College in Wiltshire during the 1980's where I studied mathematics, physics 
and chemistry.

University: In 1988 I started a degree in mathematics at Cardiff University 
and had three wonderful years where I studied during the week and climbed all 
weekend!

PhD: After living in Wales I decided it was time to visit Scotland. Here I
combined studying for my PhD at St Andrews University with climbing munroes
(Scottish mountains over 3000ft). Come hail, rain or snow each weekend I 
would camp out in the mountains and climb. In 1994, after just 3 years, I
 had completed all 277 munroes and my PhD!

Work Details: Immediately after I finished my PhD I was lucky enough to get a 
PPARC fellowship for 2 years which allowed me to continue my research at 
St Andrews. I followed this up with a year at Stanford University, California 
before returning to St Andrews. Currently I hold a RAS Fellowship.

Research Interests: My main interest is to explain why the solar corona is a 
million degrees Centigrade. My approach involves the detailed study of the 
small-scale phenomena of the corona.

Hobbies: Mountain Climbing - I have climbed mountains not only in Britain, but
	 also in Europe and America. The most beautiful views in the world are,
	 in my view, always seen from mountains!

         Football - Life in St Andrews would just not be the same without the 
	 weekly game of football. I am not the worlds greatest footballer, but
	 I did manage a hatrick in one game last season!
	 
	 Photography - Amazingly as a solar researcher I get a lot of chance 
	 to take photographs whilst I am travelling!!
	 
	 
Travel: One of the best bits about doing solar research is you get many 
opportunities to travel to conferences or to other institutions to do 
collaborative research. I have been to Japan, US, France, Germany, Austria and Portugal. If you plan things right it is possible to take a holiday afterwards in that country. After a recent visit to the US I stayed on afterwards and went to Yellowstone National Park. There I saw bears, bison, moose and bald eagles!

One-to-one: I would like to meet John Muir, a Scot, who emigrated to the US with his parents at the age of 11. He had a great love for the countryside, in particular, the mountains and played a major role in the foundation of many national parks in America. To have the opportunity to share with him the discovery of such natural wonders at Yosemite valley, the Sierras and the Rockies would be a fantastic, but also to experience his drive and determination to protect these sites would be amazing. I wonder what he would think of them nowadays?