Dr Malcolm Druett

I received a Masters degree in Physics from the University of Oxford in 2003, and an MSc in Mathematics from the Open University in 2013. In 2018 I was awarded a PhD in Solar Physics from the University of Northumbria.

I was a postdoctoral researcher from 2018 to 2021 in Stockholm University's Institute for Solar Physics in Sweden and from 2021 to 2024 in KU Leuven's Centre for Mathematical and Plasma Astrophysics in Belgium. Throughout my career I have worked with astronomical observational campaigns and committees for state-of-the-art ground-based and satellite observational facilities (SST, IRIS, DKIST, VVT, GREGOR). In 2024 I was appointed as a Lecturer in Space Systems at the University of Sheffield.

My research specialisation is the hybrid modelling of fluid dynamic systems with other transportation mechanisms such as: radiation, energetic particles, and Lagrangian tracer particles. I use these models to interpret observational data of solar and stellar plasmas, as well as other fluid dynamic phenomena such as reconnection of field topology in magnetised fluids.

I have particular interest in the analysis of solar flares, and the comparison between data from the Sun and the signals received from solar-like stars. This field of study is important to evaluate the probabilities and risks of flares, and of highly energetic flares as observed elsewhere in our galaxy. I am also interested in their impacts on technologically advanced societies, and on the habitability of bodies orbiting strongly flaring stars. My work in the modelling and interpretation of solar flares has also taken me on invited research visits to Glasgow University, Northumbria University, the University of St Andrews, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

My current PhD students are Foad Hanassi-Savari (University of Sheffield) whose research focuses on "Machine Learning for radiative transfer applications in multidimensional flare simulations", and Vishal Singh (University of Northumbria) who is studiying the formation and evolution of solar flare ribbon substructures. My former PhD student, Dr Alex Pietrow successfully defended his thesis entitled "Investigating magnetic fields in the solar chromosphere" in the University of Stockholm.

I am the academic lead for SunbYte balloon project as part of the Sheffield Space Initiative (https://ssi.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/about) and the founder of the P-Star organisation aiming to help power Astronomy research in Pakistan.