Professor Emma Bunce

Professor Emma Bunce is Director of the Institute for Space, previously Head of Physics and Astronomy and was President of the Royal Astronomical Society (2020-2022). She is also lead PI for the Mercury Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer (MIXS) instrument on board ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission – this instrument will provide us with high quality, never seen before X-ray images of Mercury.  

Her main research interests have focused on the giant rotating magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, with a particular desire to explore and understand the mechanisms which generate the dynamic auroral emissions in their upper atmospheres.  

Our involvement in the NASA Juno mission provides an excellent opportunity to explore the polar magnetosphere Jupiter, and we continued to study Saturn’s magnetosphere up to the end of the NASA Cassini mission in 2017. Emma is part of the Juno Magnetosphere Working Group, and was a Co-Investigator on the UK-led Cassini magnetometer team (PI Professor Michele Dougherty).  

As PI for the MIXS instrument, Emma and the team have begun to investigate Mercury’s magnetosphere which will contribute to the future exploitation of the Leicester-led Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer instrument which is part of the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) payload (arriving at Mercury in 2026). Emma is the Principal Investigator of the MIXS instrument. Emma is also a Co-Investigator on the sister SIXS instrument on the same mission (PI Emilia Kilpua)  

Emma acted as the Deputy Lead Scientist for the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter proposal to ESA under the L-Class mission competition, which was selected as the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission in 2012. The mission is launched in 2023 and will arrive at Jupiter in 2031, and will enter orbit at Ganymede in 2034.  

She is Co-Investigator on the Imperial College (PI Professor Michele Dougherty) JUICE magnetometer, and the JUICE UVS instrument (PI Randy Gladstone, SWRI).  

My primary research focus is Mercury and the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission, on which I am Principal Investigator for the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS). We are funded locally via UKSA (operations), ESA (expert support) and recently as recipients of a 5 year (2025-2030) STFC Large Consortium grant with the Open University and Imperial College.

I am also a Co Investigator on the J-MAG and UVS instruments on board the ESA JUICE mission. I am currently the European Co-Chair for the ESA JUICE-NASA Europa Clipper Steering Committee to investigate the opportunities for joint science between the two missions.

I am currently a member of the ESA L4 Expert Committee, developing the science case for a future mission to explore Enceladus from orbit and via a lander. This potential future mission focuses on astrobiology and the detection of biosignatures from Enceladus' sub-surface ocean.

Via the Institute for Space, I provide strategy and direction to the Research Theme Leads for the Institute - Space for Society, Life in Space, Space Environment and Space Technology. I also mentor the Institute Fellows who are working in a variety of interdisciplinary research topics. The Institute for Space will support and collaborate the Leverhulme Centre for Humanity and Space, and works in close collaboration with Space Park Leicester.

Nichols, J.D., Yeoman, T.K., Bunce E.J., Chowdhury, M.N., Cowley, S.W.H., and Robinson, T.R. (2017), Periodic emission within Jupiter’s main auroral oval, Geophys. Res. Lett., Volume: 44  Issue: 18  Pages: 9192-9198, doi: 10.1002/2017GL074824

James, M.K., E.J. Bunce, T.K. Yeoman, S.M. Imber, M. Lockwood, M.J. Owens, and J.A. Slavin, (2017), Interplanetary magnetic field properties and timescales near Mercury’s orbit, J. Geophys. Res., Volume: 122  Issue: 8  Pages: 7907-7924, doi: 10.1002/2017JA024435.

G. Clark, B.H. Mauk, D. Haggerty, C. Paranicas, P. Kollmann, A. Rymer, E.J. Bunce, S.W.H. Cowley, D.G. Mitchell, G. Provan, R.W. Ebert, F. Allegrini, F. Bagenal, S. Bolton, J. Connerney, S. Kotsiaros, W.S. Kurth, S. Levin, D.J. McComas, J. Saur, P. Valek, (2017) Energetic particle signatures of magnetic field-aligned potentials over Jupiter’s polar cap regions, Geophys. Res. Lett., Volume: 44, issue: 17, Pages 8703-8711, doi: 10.1002/2017GL074366.

Nichols, J.D., S.V. Badman, F. Bagenal, S.J. Bolton, B. Bonfond, E.J. Bunce, J.T. Clarke, J.E.P. Connerney, S.W.H. Cowley, R.W. Ebert, M. Fujimoto, J.-C. Gérard, G.R. Gladstone, D. Gordent, T. Kimura, W.S. Kurth, B.H. Mauk, G. Murakami, D.J. McComas, G.S. Orton, A.Radioti, T.S. Stallard, C.Tao, P.W. Valek, R.J. Wilson, A. Yamazaki, I. Yoshikawa (2017), Response of Jupiter’s auroras to conditions in the interplanetary medium as measured by the Hubble Space Telescope and Juno, Geophys. Res. Lett. [Juno special issue], Volume: 44, Issue: 15, Pages: 7643-7652, doi: 10.1002/2017GL073029.

Cowley, S.W.H., G.Provan, E.J. Bunce, and J.D. Nichols (2017), Magnetosphere-Ionosphere coupling at Jupiter: Expectations for Juno Perijove 1 from a steady-state axisymmetric physical model, Geophys. Res. Lett. [Juno special issue], Volume: 44, Issue: 10  Pages: 4497-4505, doi: 10.1002/2017GL073129.

Kinrade, J., S.V. Badman, E. J. Bunce, C. Tao, G. Provan, S. W. H. Cowley, A. Grocott, R. L. Gray, D. Grodent, T. Kimura, J. D. Nichols, C. S. Arridge, A. Radioti, J. T. Clarke, F. J. Crary, W. R. Pryor, H. Melin, K. H. Baines, and M. K. Dougherty (2017), An Isolated Bright Cusp Aurora at Saturn, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 122, doi: 10.1002/2016JA023792..

Lockwood, M., M.J. Owens, S.M. Imber, M.K. James, E.J. Bunce, and T.K. Yeoman (2017), Magnetic flux circulation in the solar corona and the heliosphere and the variation in the open solar flux, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 122, doi:10.1002/2016JA023644.

Sergis, N., D.G. Mitchell, J.F. Carbary, X. Jia, S.M. Krimigis, E.J Bunce, and S.W.H. Cowley (2017), The Ring Current of Saturn, Geophys. Monogr. Ser., published.

Hunt G.J., S.W.H. Cowley, G. Provan, E.J. Bunce, I.I. Alexeev, E.S. Belenkaya, V.V. Kalegaev, M.K. Dougherty, and A.J Coates (2016), Field-aligned currents in Saturn’s magnetosphere: Local time dependence of southern summer currents in the dawn sector between midnight and noon, J. Geophys. Res., 121, 7785-7804, doi:10.1002/2016JA022712.

James, M.K., E.J. Bunce, T.K. Yeoman, S.M. Imber and H. Korth (2016), A statistical survey of Ultra Low Frequency wave power and polarisation in the Hermean magnetosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 121, 8755-8772, doi:10.1002/2016JA023103.

In the 2024/25 academic year I delivered the following modules:

• 3rd Year Research Project supervisor (PA 3900)

2024 to present   Appointed Astronomy Trustee for the Royal Museums Greenwich

2020 to 2022   President of the Royal Astronomical Society

2020 to 2022       Head of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester

2018 to 2022       Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award

2017                Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

2014 to present Appointed as the University's Trustee for the National Space Centre

2003 to 2007      PPARC Postdoctoral Fellow, Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester

2023    Awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours List – for services to Astronomy and Science Education

2022    EGU David Bates Medal - for “exceptional contribution” to Planetary Science

2019    University of Leicester Discovering Excellence Award – Research Excellence

2018    RAS Chapman Medal for Geophysics - for her outstanding contributions to the understanding of the gas giant planets

2018   East Midland’s Women’s Award – Special Recognition for Outstanding Achievements in Science

2014    Royal Astronomical Society Group Achievement Award - The Cassini Magnetometer Team

2011    Philip Leverhulme Prize for “Astronomy & Astrophysics”

2009    NASA Group Achievement Award - Cassini Magnetometer Team

2009    Sir Harold Jeffrey’s Lectureship for the Royal Astronomical Society

2005    European Geophysical Union “Young talents in Geosciences” Award

2004    Prix Baron Nicolet, awarded by the Belgian Royal Academy of Science and Fine Arts – for Space Physics

2002    RAS Blackwell prize for “Best Thesis in Geophysics”

2002    Young Scientists Publication Award, awarded by the European Geophysical Society