Shadia Rifai Habbal…. A Syrian Professor Excels in Solar Physics
Shadia Rifai Habbal, is a professor of solar physics at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. She was born in Homs, Syria and got a bachelor’s degree in physics and math from the University of Damascus. She continued her education and earned a master’s and a doctorate degree in physics from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, USA in 1977.
She worked as a researcher for one year at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder (1977-1978), then she was appointed as a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at the University of Space Physics and stayed for more than two decades. She received a professorship chair at the University of Wales in Britain in 2000, and in 2002 she was appointed editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research, Department of Space Physics.
Scientific activities:
She chaired 10 scientific campaigns to monitor the eclipse around the world, as she visited places like India (1995), Guadeloupe (1998) China (2008) and French Polynesia (2010).
She led several science teams participating in the study of the solar aura during the eclipse in cooperation with NASA in (2006,2008, 2009), and helped establish the NASA Parker Solar Probe, which launched in 2018. The mission of the probe is to help determine why the sun’s atmosphere is even hotter than its internal core.
She submitted about 60 research papers to scientific arbitration journals, and participated in thirty other papers in scientific conferences, as she is the leader of an academic movement for science women known as “adventurous women.”
Dr. Habbal is an important member of many scientific societies; Including :
American Astronomical Society, American Society of Earth Physics,
American Physicists Association, adventurous Women Association,
European Society of Earth Physics and International Union of Astronomers.
Dr. Shadia holds an associate degree in the Royal Astronomical Society.
She has obtained many scientific estimates; Such as:
Pioneer, Arab Thought Foundation, December 2004, Certificate of Guest Professor, China University of Science and Technology, September 4, 2001, Certificate of Appreciation from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics December 19, 1997 and
Certificate of Merit from the International Center for Atmospheric and Climate Research 1996.
Prepared by: Amal Farhat