Ronald A.M. van der Linden#

Current position: Director general, Organisation Royal Observatory of Belgium, Ringlaan 3, 1180 Brussels, Belgium

Career

Main degrees

• June 1983, Final Degree Secondary Education, Humanities - Modern Languages, St. Jozefscollege Herentals
• July 1987, Master in Mathematical Sciences, Summa Cum Laude (4x), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• September 1991, PhD in Sciences, Summa Cum Laude and congratulations of the Jury, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Other degrees

• September 1987, Qualified as teacher for Higher Secondary Education, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
• May 1991, Spanish, Practical Knowledge, Centrum voor Levende Talen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Employment History

• 1 October 1987 - 30 September 1991: Research Fellow of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research, working at the Astronomical Institute of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
• 1 October 1991 - 31 March 1994: Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Dept. of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, University of St. Andrews (Scotland)
• 1 April 1994 - 31 March 1996: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, EU RT Grant, working at JET Joint Undertaking.
• 1 April 1996 - 30 September 1996: Computational Physicist, JET Joint Undertaking
• 1 October 1996 - 30 April 2000: Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research, working at the Centre for Plasma Astrophysics of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• 1 May 2000 - 30 April 2002: research assistant at the Department of Solar Physics of the Royal Observatory of Belgium
• 1 May 2002 - 30 May 2002: first research assistant at the Department of Solar Physics of the Royal Observatory of Belgium
• 1 June 2000 - 30 April 2005: senior researcher (workleader) at the Department of Solar Physics of the Royal Observatory of Belgium; from 1 October 2004 also acting head of department
• 1 May 2005 - now: Director General, Royal Observatory of Belgium

Activities of Scientific Research and Operations

Prof. van der Linden writes about his past and current research activities:

"During the first 10 years of my scientific career, my research was mainly oriented towards the theoretical study of plasmas in the solar corona and in devices for nuclear fusion. When I moved to the Royal Observatory of Belgium, this research continued, but I have become at the same time involved in studies related to Space Weather. In parallel to that, I have been strongly active in the development of models, methods and infrastructure for the monitoring and forecasting of space weather. This activity was situated in the expansion of the `Regional Warning Center (RWC) Belgium' and the `Solar Influences Data analysis Centre' (SIDC) at the Department of Solar Physics of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. Besides studies supporting the scientific foundation of the prediction techniques, this mainly implied the development of software for data handling and analysis and for the practical implementation and distribution of forecasts (software packages PreviMaster and PreviWeb).

Since 2004 I lead the operational activities of the SIDC (RWC Belgium, WDC for the Sunspot Index and Data analysis Service of the FAGS). I thus also represent the SIDC in many international organizations, such as the ESA Space Weather Working Team, in the FAGS Board of Service Directors, the ISES board, ... Due to these activities, I have also become a member of the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel set up by NASA and NOAA, I represent the ISES in the informal working group on the long-term sustainability of UNCOPUOS and I am the Belgian representative in the SSA Users Group.

The theoretical studies in which I was involved throughout my career are mainly situated in the general framework of 'Magnetohydrodynamics' (MHD), applied to astrophysical plasmas such as the atmosphere of the Sun and laboratory plasmas. More specifically, it is centred at the numerical and analytical study of magnetic and thermodynamic stability of structures in the solar corona and in laboratory devices for nuclear fusion. Applications in astrophysical context include the formation of cool condensations in the solar corona (prominences) and in tokamaks (MARFES), the fine structure of the condensations, an explanation of the long-term stability of magnetic structures (such as coronal loops) and the modelisation of the ultimate destructive instability of such structures.

During my PhD research I participated in a pilot project on the use of supercomputing (vector and parallel machines), which has also resulted in publications on that issue. My initial experience in computational physics has benefited greatly from the participation in a European 'Twinning Project' aimed at the development and application of large-scale numerical methods on a wide variety of computers.

Finally, it is useful to point out that although my own background is mainly in theoretical solar physics, I have also participated several times to observational campaigns for night-time astronomy while I was working at the Astronomical Institute of the KULeuven. These were held in the `Hochalpine Forschungsstation Jungfraujoch' (Switzerland)."

Invited presentations (incomplete list)

• September 1990: `User experiences with Parallel IO', Sup'Eur Fall 1990 meeting, Aachen, Germany
• 29 January 1991: `Condensational Instabilities and Marfes' in JET Joint Undertaking, Abingdon, UK
• 5-17 September 1993: 10 hours of lectures on `Numerical Simulations of Magnetic and Thermal Instabilities' at international Summer School organized by Prof. Dr. M. Goossens in Leuven
• 8 February 2008: `Space Weather: an international affair - and beyond', presentation on behalf of ISES to UNCOPUOS informal working group on the long-term sustainability of space travel.
• November 2008: `European Resources for Space Weather Applications: An Overview of Existing and Planned Data, Tools and Services', 5th European Space Weather Week

Conference organization

• November 2005: session convener at the 2nd European Space Weather Week
• November 2006: local organizer and member of Scientific Organizing Committee of the
• 3rd European Space Weather Week
• November 2007: local organizer and member of Scientific Organizing Committee of the
• 4th European Space Weather Week
• November 2008: local organizer and member of Scientific Organizing Committee of the
• 5th European Space Weather Week
• November 2009: local organizer and member of Scientific Organizing Committee of the
• 6th European Space Weather Week

Scientific Commissions and Organizations

• member of the International Astronomical Union
• member of the Belgian National Committee for Astronomy
• member of the Belgian National Committee for the Relations Sun-Earth
• member of Academia Europaea
• member of the NASA-NOAA Solar Cycle 24 Prediction Panel
• member of the Space Weather Working Team
• Belgian representative in COST ES0803; alsoWG2 leader and grantholder for this action
• member of the Scienti¯c Commission of the National Geographic Institute
• Belgian representative in SSA Potential Users Group

Research supervision

Throughout his career Ronald van der Linden has been involved in the supervision of final year graduates (for their master thesis) and PhD students.

Management Experience
Soon after moving to the Royal Observatory of Belgium Ronald van der Linden started taking over responsibilities in the management of the SIDC as WDC for the Sunspot Index and as (ISES) RWC Belgium. As the health of Dr. Pierre Cugnon deteriorated, he took over completely the role of SIDC director (and the leadership over the technical staff joined to it) in 2004. At the same time, he was leading the development of the SIDC as one of the Service Development Activities in the ESA Space Weather Applications Pilot Project. Since then, his management responsibilities have grown very rapidly. In 2005, Ronald van der Linden became acting head of the solar physics department, while finally from May 1st 2005 onwards, he became Director General of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, a well-known institute for scientific research and services with a strong international reputation. He am thus in charge of a very heterogenous workforce of about 180 people with an annual budget of 10-12 million euro in a very competitive environment.

In 2005, Ronald van der Linden proposed the creation of a centre of excellence in solar-terrestrial physics (joining expertise of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy and the Royal Meteorological Institute) to the Belgian federal government, which was accepted for funding by the Council of Ministers on March 22, 2006. This Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence is now in the process of full deployment at the Space Pole in Brussels. Provisionally, Ronald van der Linden still fulfills the role of general coordinator of this Centre (with an annual budget of 4.5 million euro).

Teaching Experience As appears from the above degrees lists, Ronald van der Linden has the necessary qualifications to teach mathematics and sciences in the higher secondary education. His employments as research assistant of the Fund for Scientific Research included some teaching activity at the University of Leuven (exercises in the application of a general course of mathematics for bio-engineering and applied economics).

Lectures for education and public outreach (incomplete list)

• 14 December 1999: 'De Zon: een enkelvoudige, onveranderlijke ster?' in student residence Arenberg (Leuven).
• 1 September 2001, 'Bijdragen van de ruimtesonde SOHO aan onze kennis van de zon en aan de studie en voorspelling van het ruimteweer' in volkssterrenwacht Mira.
• 27 March 2004, 'De Zon-Aarde connectie' in volkssterrenwacht Altair.