Adam Fox

After joining the University of Leicester in 2018 as an undergraduate, I graduated with an MPhys in Physics with Space Science in 2022 and began my PhD project, later that year. Through that project, I worked as part of the team preparing for the first receipt of science data from the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer onboard ESA/JAXA's BepiColombo mission, scheduled to be returned in early 2027. I am now continuing my involvement with the team as a Research associate and operations scientist at Space Park Leicester.

My research concerns the Mercury Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer (MIXS) onboard ESA/JAXA's BepiColombo mission to Mercury. MIXS will use solar coronal X-rays as an excitation source to carry out X-ray fluorescence analysis of Mercury's surface, ultimately producing a map of elemental abundances across the planet's surface. MIXS also has the capability to image small scale (<10 km) targets in X-rays where solar conditions allow. The science phase of the BepiColombo mission is scheduled to begin in early 2027, before which, preparations are being made for the data analysis techniques that will be used. 

My research involves the development of techniques for maximising the scientific return from MIXS and BepiColombo. I am developing fitting routines to solar X-ray flux data. This routine will be applied to calibrated data products from the Solar Intensity X-ray and particle Spectrometer (SIXS) to provide high resolution input spectra to the MIXS data analysis pipeline. I have also developed novel techniques for extracting additional information from MIXS spectra beyond the fluorescence line peaks, this work makes use of the MIXS Ground Reference Facility at Space Park Leicester. In the laboratory we observe samples under controlled conditions using the MIXS qualification model detector. This work allows us to gain an understanding of how the MIXS instrument can fit into the wider mission and provide evidence to answer the key mysteries surrounding ancient and in some cases potentially ongoing surface processes. A particular focus of my research has been understanding how MIXS can help resolve questions about the composition of Mercury's Low Reflectance Material through techniques that can identify the effects of enrichment in low-Z elements.

During the mission's science phase I will also involved in planning of MIXS observations, data handling and archiving.

I provide project support to third and fourth-year undergraduate students during research projects with a range of focusses.

• ESA Academy Student Conference Sponsorship - Mercury Laboratory Workshop 2025

Undergraduate:

• Raymond Hide Prize (2020)
• Stewardson Prize (2022)

• EPSC-DPS 2025 (Helsinki, September 2025)
• Mercury Laboratory Workshop 2025 (Helsinki, September 2025)
• Mercury 2024 (Kyoto, June 2024)
• Mercury Laboratory Workshop 2024 (Berlin, September 2024)
• British Planetary Science Conference (Leicester, June 2024) (Presenter and Co-Organiser)
• UK Planetary Forum Early Careers Meeting (Imperial College, January 2024 and Oxford University, January 2025)