For the fourth time since 2003, a solar physicist associated with Montana State University has won an international award for contributing to the study of the sun. This year’s recipient of the Karen Harvey Prize is Dibyendu Nandi, a former graduate student and assistant research professor at MSU.

“These sort of things snowball,” said Dick Smith, head of the MSU Department of Physics. “It’s not a Nobel Prize, but within the community of solar physicists it puts you on their radar.”

“Recognition from your peers in the scientific community is very motivating,” said Nandi. She plans to continue the research he has spent the last few years studying with former MSU graduate student Andres Munoz-Jaramillo and research professor Piet Martens.

“My research is geared toward understanding how complex interactions between ionized gases and magnetic fields inside the Sun generate solar activity,” Nandi said. Solar activity affects Earth’s power grids, radiation at the North and South poles, orbiting satellites  and other space-based technologies, “therefore, understanding how the Sun produces magnetic fields and how these fields vary is important.”

To further this understanding, Martens and Nandi are collaborating again. This time, they are working with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland on a joint proposal to NASA and the National Science Foundation that would help scientists better predict the Sun’s activity.

“Academics tend to be competitive and [scholars] only want the credit for themselves,” however, “We are a very collaborative group,” Martens said. The annual Karen Harvey Prize has been awarded to four MSU-affiliated physicists since its inception 10 years ago;.

Dibyendu Nandi proudly explained “the MSU Physics Department and the Solar Physics Group has an excellent academic atmosphere, where everyone is very supportive of each other and actively sustains a happy environment. This is essential for nurturing creativity.”

“Our [solar] group is one of, and possibly the most productive groups in the country,” said Dick Smith. “I’m just really impressed by what these solar physicists are doing.”