Prof. Dr Viviane Pierrard

Viviane Pierrard is a senior scientist and works at BIRA-IASB since 1994. She is Head of the Solar Wind group and obtained her PhD in Space Physics in 1997 about the particles escaping from the ionosphere at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), where she is also invited professor since 2004 and was director of the Center for Space Radiations from 2007 to 2011. She has a long experience in the field of space and plasma physics. Her scientific interest includes the development of kinetic models for the solar wind and for different regions of planetary magnetospheres. She developed a 3D dynamic model of the plasmapause and plasmasphere coupled to the ionosphere. She participated to the development and analysis of the Energetic Particle Telescope (EPT) instrument onboard the PROBA-V satellite. She is co-editor with F. Darrouzet and J. De Keyser of a book dedicated to the recent progress on the plasmasphere with Cluster and IMAGE observations. She has published more than 100 refereed papers and participated in more than 300 presentations in scientific conferences, often as invited speaker. Distinctions and awards include: Zeldovich Medal awarded by COSPAR and Russian Academy of Sciences (2006), Baron Nicolet Prize of the Belgian Academy of Sciences (2002), Charles Lagrange Prize of the Belgian Academy of Sciences (2000).

V. Pierrard will be the leader of the PITHIA-NRF project for BIRA-IASB. She will provide the plasmasphere model and participate to the PITHIA-NRF project for BIRA-IASB with an allocation of 10% of full-time employment.