SwRI’s Dr. Rohini Giles receives NASA Early Career Achievement Medal

Planetary scientist recognized for achievements analyzing Jupiter’s atmosphere

2024-03-26

(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO — March 26, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute Senior Research Scientist Dr. Rohini Giles has received the NASA Early Career Achievement Medal. The medal recognizes unusual and significant performance supporting NASA’s mission during the first 10 years of their career. Giles was cited for “significant early career achievements in the analysis of Juno data to study Jovian Transient Luminous Events and the distribution of constituents in Jupiter’s atmosphere.”

“It’s great to see Dr. Giles receive this NASA medal,” said SwRI’s Dr. Randy Gladstone, instrument lead for the SwRI-developed Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard Juno. “Rohini has done an amazing job of explaining the non-auroral observations of Jupiter, including the ultraviolet signatures of lightning and meteors, for the Juno UVS instrument team.”

Giles specializes in remote observations of planetary atmospheres, making use of data from both spacecraft and ground-based telescopes and covering wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the infrared. She recently used ultraviolet observations made by the SwRI-led NASA spacecraft Juno to study transient events in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, analyze reflected sunlight observations and monitor the temporal variability of the planet’s auroras. Giles also leads a project supported by a NASA Solar System Observing grant to study the temperature structure of Venus’ mesosphere using ground-based infrared observations.

“Dr. Giles is an important member of the Juno UVS team, and she has proven she can tackle anything thrown at her,” said SwRI Staff Scientist Dr. Thomas Greathouse. “I count myself lucky to work alongside her. Dr. Giles’ ability to take complex scientific topics and distill them into easily digestible science results sets her apart from her peers, and she is one of the best science writers I have ever had the pleasure to work with.”

Giles is a part of several spacecraft instrument teams. Her first experience as part of a spacecraft team was for Juno’s UVS instrument team, working on instrument calibration and performance analysis. She is also a member of UVS teams for the upcoming Europa Clipper and JUICE missions. Additionally, Giles is the first author on 11 published scientific papers and a co-author on 38. She has a master’s degree in physics and a Ph.D. in planetary physics, both from Oxford University. She joined the SwRI staff in 2019.

For more information visit https://www.swri.org/planetary-science.

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