FIRST SUMMER SCHOOL ON SPACE RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS

for young scientists and PhD students

5-11 July 2021

National Astronomical Observatory, Rozhen, Bulgaria
Organized by the Branch “Cosmos” of the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria
under the auspices of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Bulgaria

Fundamental Research: Astrophysics and Cosmology

LECTURER: STOYTCHO YAZADJIEV

Sofia University, Bulgaria
Prof. Stoytcho Yazadjiev is a world-renowned expert in mathematical physics with main interests in exact solutions of the Einstein equations,higher dimensional gravity, black holes in higher dimensions, modified theories of gravity, etc. He is an expert in astrophysics and his work is concentrated on compact stars in General relativity and modified theories of gravity, structure and dynamics of compact stars, gravitational wave emission. Prof. Yazadjiev is a leader of the General Relativity Group at the Faculty of Physics, Sofia University, Bulgaria.
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Fundamental Research: Astrophysics and Cosmology

LECTURER: DANIELA DONEVA

University of Tübingen, Germany
Since September 2019 Dr. Doneva is a leader of Emmy Noether research group . The topic of the project is "Gravitational waves from compact objects - a tool for testing strong gravity and nuclear matter at extreme densities", Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tuebingen. Research interests: Theoretical astrophysics, Models and dynamics of neutron stars and black holes, Alternative theories of gravity, Computational physics.
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Fundamental Research: Sun and Space Weather

LECTURER: MANUELA TEMMER

University of Graz, Austria
Dr. Manuela Temmer is currently an associate professor at the University of Graz at the Institute of Physics. The research focus of Dr. Temmer is in solar and heliospheric physics, with application to the impact of solar activity on Earth as well as human and robotic explorers across the solar system (Space Weather). She works toward understanding the physics behind the dynamic processes and interrelations between flares, coronal mass ejections, and solar wind structures in interplanetary space. Besides working in an interdisciplinary field across several physics domains, of current major interest is the validation and improvement of state-of-the-art Space Weather models by using remote sensing image data and in-situ measurements from multiple view points. For more information visit swe.uni-graz.at.
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Aerospace technologies: Scientific instruments and payloads

LECTURER: OLIVER ROBERTS

USRA Science and Technology Institute, USA
Oliver joined USRA in 2017 and currently works on developing, characterizing and testing X-ray optics within the X-ray Astronomy group at Marshall Space Flight Center. Additionally, he works on gamma-ray instrumentation development for enterprising NASA missions. He was briefly an NPP fellow with in the Gamma-ray Astronomy group working with the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor and prior to that, had several post-doc positions in Ireland and the UK. His scientific interests range from the small (nuclear structure physics and radiation detection) to the large (study of astrophysical and geophysical transients). He holds several awards, including the Bruno Rossi prize as a Fermi-GBM team member. A passionate Welshman, he is a keen follower of rugby and a musician. Additional hobbies include getting lost on mountains, running in circles and co-hosting Astronomy on Tap in Huntsville in what spare time he has.
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Aerospace technologies: Scientific instruments and payloads

LECTURER: CHRISTOPHER BRIDGES

Surrey Space Center, UK
Dr. Chris Bridges joined Surrey Space Centre as a PhD student in April 2006 under Dr. Tanya Vladimirova and has since been successful in obtaining Post Doctorial positions in the VLSI Design & Embedded Systems and Astrodynamics Groups. He is now the On-Board Data Handling Group lead and is published in agent computing, Java processing, and multi-core system-on-a-chip technologies. He runs the Implementing Intelligence for Aerospace Session at the IEEE/AIAA Aerospace Conference at Big Sky, Montana, USA. Chris is the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) Lead Engineer & Researcher for the collaboration with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) mission 'Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstrator' programme (STRaND).

Space-related methods and applications: Earth Observations

LECTURER: FRANCESCO SARTI

European Space Agency (ESA), Italy
After his Master Degree in Electrical Engineering (Univ. of Rome, Italy), he was hired in 1990 at the European Space Agency, ESA, first in Germany (Operation Center, Darmstaft, ESOC) to work on mission analysis and later in The Netherlands (ESTEC) as a spacecraft control systems engineer. In 1997 he moved to Toulouse, France, employed at CNES (Centre National des Etudes Spatiales, Toulouse) as a SAR applications engineer in Earth Observation. During this period at CNES, he was Project Manager for the International Charter on Space and Major Disaster. After obtaining his PhD (Optical-radar remote sensing for the monitoring of surface deformation and change and its application to natural risk management) he moved to ESA/ESRIN, in Italy, Earth Observation Directorate, where is the Scientific Coordinator of the Education and Training Activities in Earth Observation.

Space-related methods and applications: Earth Observations

LECTURER: Natasa Mahovic

EUMETSAT
Dr. Natasa Strelec Mahovic is a User Training Officer at EUMETSAT. She acquired a PhD degree in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology at University of Zagreb in 2011 and has worked in the Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service for 27 years. She led the Remote Sensing section and the Weather Analysis and Forecast Department. From 2012 to 2020 she was a lecturer in Practical Meteorology in the Department of Geophysics, University of Zagreb. Since 2020 she works in EUMETSAT with the vision to support and increase the use of satellite data in meteorological applications.

Machine learning methods

LECTURER: PETER HRISTOV

CERN, Switzerland
Dr. Hristov joined CERN in 2000 as a member of the ALICE collaboration.He worked on the software for offline data processing and as the ALICE programme librarian. He is currently leader of the Software Development section of the Experimental Physics department. Prior to joining CERN, he was a research physicist and participated successively in the EXCHARM experiment at the U-70 facility at Protvino, Russia, and in the NA48 experiment at the SPS facility at CERN. Dr. Hristov obtained a PhD in Particle Physics in 1999 from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia.

Astrophotography Practice

NIKOLA ANTONOV