Leah-Nani Alconcel

Dr.

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

space payload instrumentation, space domain awareness, orbital dynamics, orbital mechanics, SWaP, space systems

19992024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Research interests

space payload instrumentation, space domain awareness, orbital dynamics, orbital mechanics, SWaP, space systems, space instrument data calibration, space instrument data archiving

Biography

Dr Alconcel is a spacecraft engineer and lecturer in the School of Metallurgy and Materials. She leads the MSc programme in Space Engineering.

She has research interests in payload instrument development and calibration, space situational awareness from space-based platforms, data management and data access for space, and pedagogical methods for inclusive STEM teaching.

Dr Alconcel has won research and public engagement and research grants from the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK Space Agency and EPSRC.

Dr Alconcel has over 17 years of experience working as an engineer and manager on planetary exploration missions throughout the solar system including the Cassini mission to Saturn, JUICE mission to the Jovian system, and the Cluster multi-spacecraft mission investigating the Earth’s magnetosphere. She has worked on the full life cycle of space missions, from concept and design through to build, launch, operations and end-of-life.

She is currently working with colleagues in the Pervasive Sensing group in the School of Engineering on space-based inverse synthetic aperture radar systems for improved Space Domain Awareness (SDA). Please see our dedicated page for this work: https://www.bham.ac.uk/sda.

Dr Alconcel has long-standing interests in both photography and public engagement in science and engineering. She has developed funded engagement projects for the Royal Academy of Engineering (Ingenious Award, 2021-22) and the UK Space Agency (Space for All, 2022-23). She is passionate about inclusivity in STEM teaching, and particularly in aerospace and space engineering. She actively strives to recruit and retain a diverse student cohort to the School’s courses.

Qualifications

  • PhD, "Dissociation Dynamics and Energetics of Reactive Organic Intermediates" – University of California, San Diego
  • MSc – University of California, San Diego
  • BSc – University of Southern California
  • Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society
  • Fellow of Advance HE

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

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