Charles and Nora L. Wiley Award for Meritorious Research and Creativity
Jiong Qiu
Jiong Qiu, professor of physics in the College of Letters and Science, is the recipient of this year’s Charles and Nora L. Wiley Award for Meritorious Research in the physical sciences. The award recognizes a faculty member who has made an especially significant research achievement or who has a recent body of research that demonstrates extensive, mature research activity. Sponsored by the Wiley family and the Office of Research and Economic Development, this award comes with a $2,000 honorarium.
Qiu is a world-renowned researcher in the field of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, the most energetic, explosive events in the solar system. More than 20 years ago, she began to pioneer techniques that clarified mechanisms related to these events, and in the past several years, her work has provided novel insights into the magnetic reconnection process at work in solar flares.
Qiu has earned recognition throughout the global solar physics community, leading to many invitations to present her work at premier international conferences. She has obtained steady funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation throughout her 20 years at MSU and, among other appointments, has been called upon by the National Academy of Sciences to serve on the Committee on Solar and Space Physics.
“I believe that Professor Jiong Qiu is one of the best scientists in space physics today and, by far, the world leader in solar eruptions,” wrote Spiro K. Antiochos, a research professor at the University of Michigan affiliated with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in a letter supporting Qiu’s nomination. “Her research contributions using observational analysis to determine the mechanisms responsible for major solar eruptions have been invaluable for advancing understanding.”