Citation | Stan Cowley is one of the outstanding solar system scientists of his generation. His work in space plasma physics has been seminal in understanding the fundamental physical processes involved in the magnetosphere of the Earth and other planets. He was awarded the Bartels medal of the European Geophysical Union (2003) and the Gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2006). In particular, he has laid the foundations for understanding energy release by reconnection, with pioneering research on solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions in the rapidly-rotating magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, combining theoretical analysis with observations from the ground and space. |