Alexander MacKinnon

I am an astrophysicist who has spent most of his career in university adult education. From 1991 to 2018 I worked on University of Glasgow's mature student Access programme, http://www.gla.ac.uk/study/short/accessprogramme, teaching Mathematics on the Access course and playing coordinator roles for the whole programme. I also developed and taught courses for the public in Astronomy and Physics, and supported other tutors in doing the same. Before this I had worked as a researcher on physics of solar flares and I continued this research - appropriately for someone working in a university - while playing my various adult education roles.

My research has looked at the magnetic phenomena of the Sun's outer atmosphere, particularly the high energy processes that lead to X-rays, gamma-rays and energetic neutrons in solar flares. I am also interested in self-organised criticality and complex systems in astrophysics. Publications list: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?library&libname=amackinnon&libid=4c7d155f51 And a recent research collaborative effort: http://www.issibern.ch/teams/elucompofsolflare/