Dr. James O'Donoghue

Dr. James O'Donoghue is a planetary scientist born in Shrewsbury, England, notable as the town Charles Darwin was born. He completed his degree in Physics with Planetary Space Science at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, followed by a PhD degree at the University of Leicester about how Jupiter and Saturn interact with their near-space environments (focused on Jupiter's aurora, Saturn's aurora, and Saturn's rings). In 2014 O'Donoghue moved to Boston, USA, as a postdoctoral associate at Boston University for 2.5 years.

O’Donoghue then moved to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2017-2019 (2.5 years) before moving to JAXA in May 2019 for a 3-5 year position as an International Top Young Fellow. His current specializes in ground-based astronomy of giant planet upper atmospheres - specifically Jupiter, Saturn, and exoplanets. His general research goals are to understand how planetary upper atmospheres interact with space forcing from above and weather systems from below. He studies ionospheres, magnetospheres, storms like Jupiter's Great Red Spot as well as the mechanism by which Saturn's rings rain icy dust onto the planet (called ring rain).