Patrick Antolin

I am an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow and proleptic Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University. My PhDs are in Solar Physics from Kyoto University (2009, focus on numerical simulations) and the University of Oslo (2012, focus on solar observations). My fields of expertise are magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), waves and instabilities. My research focuses on solar atmospheric phenomena and in particular:

  • Coronal heating by MHD waves and associated dynamic instabilities
  • Coronal cooling processes (coronal rain and prominences), thermal instabilities and non-equilibrium.

I an expert in numerical modelling (incl. parallel computing), forward modelling (the synthesis of observational diagnostics from numerical simulations) and solar observations (with both, space-based and ground-based observatories).


Career trajectory

I have a double BSc from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), in Mathematics (2003) and Physics (2004). I obtained a scholarship from the Japanese government (Mombukagakusho) for postgraduate studies in Japan, which I carried out at Kyoto University under the supervision of Prof. Kazunari Shibata (2004 - 2009). I obtained my MSc in 2006 and PhD in 2009 (thesis title: “Predicting observational signatures of coronal heating by Alfvén waves and nanoflares”).

In parallel with my Japanese PhD I started a collaboration with the University of Oslo (at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics), which led to a second PhD under the supervision of Prof. Mats Carlsson (2012, thesis title: “Implications for coronal heating and magnetic field topology from coronal rain observations”).

My post-doc / PI experience, in chronological order is as follows:

  • CmPA @ KU Leuven (Belgium; Supervisor: Tom Van Doorsselaere), 11/2011 - 04/2013
  • JSPS Postdoctoral research Fellow (PI) at Dept of Earth and Planetary Sciences @ University of Tokyo (Host Professor: Takaaki Yokoyama), 04/2013 - 07/2013
  • Hinode Science Center @ NAOJ (Japan; Supervisor: Dr. Yukio Katsukawa), 09/2013 - 12/2015
  • School of Mathematics and Statistics @ University of St Andrews (Scotland, UK; Supervisor: Prof. Ineke De Moortel), 01/2016 - 05/2018
  • STFC ER Fellow, University of St Andrews, 06/2018 - 07/2019
  • STFC ER Fellow and proleptic senior lecturer, Northumbria University, 08/2019 - present


My current CV can be found here.


Publications on NASA/ADS