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Meriem Alaoui: A ‘Flare’ for Solar Physics

A black-and-white photo of a woman smiling at the camera, with a scientific poster behind her
Credits: NASA / Courtesy of Meriem Alaoui

Meriem Alaoui is a solar physicist at Goddard who studies solar flares, in hopes of better understanding these massive explosions.

Name: Meriem Alaoui

Title: Early Career Research Scientist

Formal Job Classification: Solar Physicist

Organization: Solar Physics Laboratory (Code 671)

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?

I study the beams of electrons generated in solar flares. Solar flares are intense bursts of radiation from our Sun, associated with the largest explosions in our solar system. I’m trying to understand particle acceleration and quantify how much energy is involved in this process. I primarily develop theoretical models to explain solar X-ray observations. Then, I analyze these observations and work backwards to refine the models.

There are some practical reasons why we want to understand solar eruptive events. They can affect us and our electrical grid systems on Earth, and they can affect our astronauts in space. We want to understand how they happen, and possibly predict them. We’re far away from predicting them, but that’s the goal. We also want to understand similar phenomena occurring in other astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. It’s complicated because of the different temperatures, densities, magnetic fields, and scales involved.

How did you decide to become a solar physicist?

I had always wanted to be a scientist. It sounded exciting when I was young, like an adventurous job. And how did I end up in physics? I think it’s because I liked math, and I wanted to apply it to something practical, so I ended up in engineering and then in physics.

I think solar physics is interesting because you have more precise data to study the Sun than you do for other stars. The closer to Earth you are, the more in situ observations and precise measurements you have. For me, it’s the right amount of precision. But honestly, I think if I had ended up on a different path in science, it would still have been interesting. The more you learn about something, the more passionate you become about it, right?

Left: Several scientists sit at a table, speaking with children at an outreach event
Right: A woman and several colleagues speak with children, who are looking at objects on a table
Credits: NASA / Courtesy of Meriem Alaoui

What did your education and early career background look like? How did you end up at Goddard?

I am originally from Morocco, but I did my bachelor’s in physics and master’s in space plasma physics at the University of Orleans in France, and my first internship was in Scotland. I have had — and still have — many mentors who played a role in where I ended up. Early on, I met somebody who worked between Glasgow and the University of California, Berkeley. He seemed like a very interesting scientist, and I decided that Berkeley sounded like a nice place. I went back to my university and tried to find professors who had connections there. With the help of my master’s adviser, I got a job at the Space Sciences Laboratory in Berkeley as a junior researcher. There, I worked with a group that used data from a long-serving space satellite called RHESSI to study X-rays emitted during large solar flares. We collaborated with people from Goddard, which is how I ended up here during my Ph.D. I’ve been here ever since.

What was your experience like growing up in Morocco?

My parents lived in the United States for about 10 years, and I was born in the U.S. They decided to go back to Morocco so that we could grow up with our family. I grew up with a ton of cousins — I have 46 cousins and a bunch of uncles and aunts. It’s a really big family. My childhood was being surrounded by a lot of noise and a lot of cousins, which was fun.

What’s a skill you’d like to develop?

You have to sell your science and balance that with integrity and fairness. It’s a skill that you learn along your career and not anything that’s being taught to you. I think one of the hardest things for me is figuring out how to communicate my science so that it’s simple enough, but also not so simple that it loses the juicy details.

Some people do this beautifully. They just say, “Here’s the piece of information that you need to know. That’s it. Moving on.” Yes, they spent a gazillion years just getting to one detail, but you don’t need to know that detail. And I hope I become like that one day.

How do you like to spend time outside of work?

That changes constantly. I have been biking some during the pandemic. I like it because you’re outside, and you can be with people but still have space to think. I also like museums. When museums were open, I was a regular volunteer at the Newseum (I loved their Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery!), the Smithsonian, and the Koshland Science Museum of the National Academies of Sciences.

By Anna Blaustein
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

A graphic with a collection of people's portraits grouped together in front of a soft blue galaxy background. The people come from various races, ethnicities, and genders. A soft yellow star shines in the upper left corner, and the stylized text "Conversations with Goddard" is in white on the far right.

Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011 and are archived on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.