Dr Leah-Nani Alconcel PhD, FHEA, MRAeS

Dr Leah-Nani Alconcel

School of Metallurgy and Materials
Associate Professor

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 5810
Email
l.alconcel@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@metmat_unibham
View my research portal
Address
School of Metallurgy & Materials
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Alconcel is a spacecraft engineer and lecturer in the School of Metallurgy and Materials. She leads the MSc programme in Space Engineering.

She has research interests in payload instrument development and calibration, space situational awareness from space-based platforms, data management and data access for space, and pedagogical methods for inclusive STEM teaching.

Dr Alconcel has won research and public engagement and research grants from the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK Space Agency and EPSRC.

Qualifications

  • PhD – University of California, San Diego
  • MSc – University of California, San Diego
  • BSc – University of Southern California
  • Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society
  • Fellow of Advance HE

Biography

Dr Alconcel is a spacecraft engineer and lecturer in the School of Metallurgy and Materials. She leads the MSc programme in Space Engineering.

She has research interests in payload instrument development and calibration, space situational awareness from space-based platforms, data management and data access for space, and pedagogical methods for inclusive STEM teaching.

Dr Alconcel has won research and public engagement and research grants from the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK Space Agency and EPSRC.

Dr Alconcel has over 17 years of experience working as an engineer and manager on planetary exploration missions throughout the solar system including the Cassini mission to Saturn, JUICE mission to the Jovian system, and the Cluster multi-spacecraft mission investigating the Earth’s magnetosphere. She has worked on the full life cycle of space missions, from concept and design through to build, launch, operations and end-of-life.

She is currently working with colleagues in the Pervasive Sensing group in the School of Engineering on space-based inverse synthetic aperture radar systems for improved Space Domain Awareness (SDA). Please see our dedicated page for this work: https://www.bham.ac.uk/sda.

Dr Alconcel has long-standing interests in both photography and public engagement in science and engineering. She has developed funded engagement projects for the Royal Academy of Engineering (Ingenious Award, 2021-22) and the UK Space Agency (Space for All, 2022-23). She is passionate about inclusivity in STEM teaching, and particularly in aerospace and space engineering. She actively strives to recruit and retain a diverse student cohort to the School’s courses.

Teaching

MSc in Space Engineering

Dr Alconcel teaches space-focused material for the UG Aerospace programme and the PG Space Engineering masters programme. She leads the following modules:

  • Space Mission Analysis and Design
  • Communications, Ethics and Teamwork for Space Missions
  • CubeSat Design
She also supervises individual research projects.

Postgraduate supervision

space payload instrumentation, space domain awareness, orbital dynamics, orbital mechanics, SWaP, space systems

Research

space payload instrumentation, space domain awareness, orbital dynamics, orbital mechanics, SWaP, space systems, space instrument data calibration, space instrument data archiving

Other activities

Funded policy work

  • Midlands Space Cluster Development group – University of Birmingham PI (2023-25)
  • Space Academic Network Fellow (2021-22), case study highlight (pdf)

Voluntary work

  • Midlands Innovation Space Group member (2023 onward)
  • Women in Aerospace – Europe (WIA-Europe) UK committee member, white paper author “Visibility of Female Experts”
  • Space Universities Network (SUN UK) committee member
  • Royal Aeronautical Society ALTA mentor for women in the UK aerospace sector

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Bousiotis, D, Alconcel, LS, Beddows, D, Harrison, R & Pope, F 2023, 'Monitoring and Apportioning Sources of Indoor Air Quality Using Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors', Environment International, vol. 174, 107907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.107907

Drabek-Maunder, E, Greaves, J, Fraser, HJ, Clements, DL & Alconcel, LN 2017, 'Ground-based detection of a cloud of methanol from Enceladus: when is a biomarker not a biomarker?', International Journal of Astrobiology, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1473550417000428

Alconcel, LNS, Fox, P, Brown, P, Oddy, TM, Lucek, EL & Carr, CM 2014, 'An initial investigation of the long-term trends in the fluxgate magnetometer (FGM) calibration parameters on the four Cluster spacecraft', Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 95-109. https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-3-95-2014

Noell, AC, Alconcel, LS, Robichaud, DJ, Okumura, M & Sander, SP 2010, 'Near-infrared kinetic spectroscopy of the HO2and C 2H5O2 self-reactions and cross reactions', Journal of Physical Chemistry A, vol. 114, no. 26, pp. 6983-6995. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp912129j

Mollner, AK, Nair, GP, Alconcel, LS, Okumura, M & Sander, SP 2004, 'Measuring the yield of CIS-CIS HOONO in the reaction OH + NO 2 as a function of pressure', ACS National Meeting Book of Abstracts, vol. 228, no. 2, pp. PHYS-518.

Mollner, AK, Nair, GP, Alconcel, LS, Okumura, M & Sander, SP 2004, 'Measuring the yield of cis-cis HOONO in the reaction OH+NO2 as a function of pressure', Abstracts of Papers of the American Chemical Society.

Alconcel, LS & Continetti, RE 2002, 'Dissociation dynamics and stability of cyclopentoxy and cyclopentoxide', Chemical Physics Letters, vol. 366, no. 5-6, pp. 642-649. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0009-2614(02)01633-0

Conference contribution

Bousiotis, D, Alconcel, L-N, Harrison, RM, Beddows, DCS & Pope, F 2023, Monitoring and apportioning sources of outdoor and indoor air quality using low-cost particulate matter sensors. in EGU General Assembly 2023., EGU23-1011, European Geosciences Union, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24/04/23. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-1011

Alconcel, L-N, Oddy, T, Brown, P & Carr, C 2023, Sense-checking the calibration of the Cluster FGM magnetometer spin-axis offsets using mirror mode waves in the magnetosheath. in EGU General Assembly 2023., EGU23-10104, European Geosciences Union, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24/04/23. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10104

Alconcel, LS, Oddy, T, Brown , P & Carr, C 2022, An extended investigation of the long-term trends in the fluxgate magnetometer (FGM) calibration parameters on the four Cluster spacecraft. in EGU General Assembly 2022., EGU22-1527, European Geosciences Union, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23/05/22. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1527, 2022

Alconcel, LS, Fox, P, Colgan, C, Brown , P, Carr, C & Oddy, T 2016, Magnetometer Data for the Ages: Achieving complete FGM instrument coverage of the multi-spacecraft Cluster mission (2000 to 2015+). in EGU General Assembly 2016., EPSC2016-1798, European Geosciences Union.

Alconcel, LS, Fox, P, Kellock, S, Brown , P, Lucek, E, Carr, C & Dougherty, M 2013, Managing spacecraft measurements over a decade: The calibration and archiving of Cassini and Cluster magnetometer data. in American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2013., IN13A-1549, American Geophysical Union.

Gloag, JM, Lucek, EA, Alconcel, LN, Balogh, A, Brown, P, Carr, CM, Dunford, CN, Oddy, T & Soucek, J 2010, FGM data products in the CAA. in H Laakso, M Taylor & CP Escoubet (eds), Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings. 202469 edn, Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, no. 202469, vol. 0, Springer Science and Business Media B.V., pp. 109-128, 15th Workshop on Cluster Active Archive, 2008, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, 9/03/08. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3499-1_7

Noell, AC, Alconcel, LS, Robichaud, DJ, Okumura, M & Sander, SP 2008, Near-IR kinetic spectroscopy (IRKS) of the HO2 and C2H5O2 self and cross reactions. in American Chemical Society - 235th National Meeting, Abstracts of Scientific Papers. ACS National Meeting Book of Abstracts, 235th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, ACS 2008, New Orleans, LA, United States, 6/04/08.

Poster

Alconcel, LS, Jones, G, Coe, M, Gashinova, M & Marchetti, E 2023, 'Sub-Terahertz Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) for improved Space Domain Awareness (SDA)', UK Space Conference 2023, Belfast, United Kingdom, 21/11/23 - 23/11/23.

View all publications in research portal