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Dr. Olga Malandraki has studied Physics in the University of Athens. She obtained a Ph.D. on Space Electrodynamics from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications of the University of Thrace. From 2003 to 2004 she worked as a post-doctoral fellow of the Greek Scholarships' Foundations (I.K.Y.). She was a Research Associate of the National Observatory of Athens until 2005. For 2 years she worked as an Internal Research Fellow in the European Space Technology Center (ESTEC) of the European Space Agency (ESA), being the first researcher to be employed by ESA since Greece became a full member of the Agency. She is now a Scientist (member of staff) on Space Physics in the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Observatory of Athens. She has expertise in the analysis and interpretation of data collected by spacecraft instrumentation by NASA and ESA(STEREO, Ulysses, ACE, Cluster, ΤHEMIS, CASSINI).
She has investigated the magnetic topology of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs), the particle propagation channels inside Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs), the physical mechanisms of the establishment and maintenance of particle reservoirs in the Heliosphere, the solar origin of near-relativistic impulsive solar electron events and the comparison of solar particle events at high and low heliolatitudes. Her research interests also cover the energetic particle composition signatures in regions of CME/CIR interactions in the Heliosphere, the study of energetic particle events in the vicinity of planet Saturn, Space Weather effects and forecasting, the effects of solar events on the environment of planet Mars and the study of the effects on astronauts during future manned missions to Mars. Furthermore, she has studied magnetospheric substorms in geospace, as well as Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) with simultaneous multi-spacecraft measurements of energetic particles in space, galactic cosmic rays and their related Forbush decreases. She has > 25 Publications in Refereed Journals and numerous Presentations in International Conferences. She is acting as a referee for numerous International Peer-review Journals in the field including Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics), Astrophysical Journal, and Space Weather – The International Journal of Research and Applications. One of her articles in 2003 was distinguished by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) as an 'AGU Journal Highlight'. She is Convener of 4 sessions in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assemblies in 2010 and 2011. She is Lead-Convener of the annual EGU 'Open session on the Sun and Heliosphere'. She has also Chaired sessions in many International Conferences. She has been a member of the international scientific teams of the ΗΙ-SCALE (1994-2010) and EPAM experiments (1994-present) and COSPIN (2005-2010) of the ULYSSES and ACE (ESA/NASA) space missions. She also participated in the scientific team for the proposal for the Space Mission 'Cross-scale: Multi-scale coupling in Space Plasmas', within the 'ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025'. She collaborates closely with: European Space Agency/ESTEC The Netherlands, Bells Laboratories - Lucent Technologies USA, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon France, Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel Germany, Applied Physics Laboratory/Johns Hopkins University USA, NASA Goddard Flight Space Center, University of Helsinki, Naval Research Laboratory, University of Barcelona, University of Athens etc. After having been invited, she participates as a Co-Investigator in the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) instrument consortium of the ESA future mission 'SOLAR ORBITER', a spacecraft to be launched in 2018 very likely, aiming to study the Sun for the first time, at a distance 1/5 of the Earth's distance from the Sun. This close look at the Sun, in close linkage with the NASA Solar Probe Plus, promises to boost our capabilities of predicting space weather and the unruly behaviour of the star on which our lives depend.
