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SAS Science podcast with Dr. Šimon Mackovjak
Astrophysicist RNDr. Šimon Mackovjak, PhD., member of the Department of Space Physics at Institute of Experimental Physics SAS was a 37th guest of the SAS Science Podcast. His research focuses on monitoring of airglow, detecting ionospheric perturbations, and linking machine learning and astrophysics. He is also one of the founding personalities of the SPACE :: LAB project, which brings the universe closer to ordinary people. His dream is to discover something new, interesting and useful for society. The podcast was hosted by Klara Kohoutová.
As a child, astrophysicist Šimon Mackovjak was at first interested in the night sky, rather than in astronautics. He had ideal conditions for observation – he grew up in the village, so the sky was clear, without light pollution. The first constellation he recognized at the age of nine was the Leo. “The fact that I wanted to know what is happening in the night sky eventually led me to study astronomy,” he explains his way to science and astrophysics. During his PhD. studies, he devoted himself to the diagnosis of plasma in the solar corona. In the podcast, he explains why he chose this topic and why the diagnosis of the solar corona is so important.
As a young researcher, Šimon Mackovjak worked at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, later at the University of Geneva. He finally ended up in Slovakia, in Košice. “My wife and I are very happy to settle right here. Kosice is a very nice city. However, it also depends on the people or the topic you are studying,” says the scientist, stating that the individual stays could not be compared, “they were all very enriching.”
People do not really link space research, scientific area of Šimon Mackovjak, to Slovakia, although it has a history of more than 50 years, and the public has not known about it for a long time. “When I came to Košice, I was surprised at how amazing things are done here and what top experts are here,” says the astrophysicist, mentioning the Intercosmos program or parts and devices that have entered space. At the same time, he adds that the situation has changed a bit in recent years, Slovak society already knows about Košice space research thanks to the popularization of the institute’s work. The establishment of the Slovak Space Office helped as well. In this context, Šimon Mackovjak names which space missions scientists IEP SAS participated in.
Šimon Mackovjak considers James Webb’s telescope, which they launched into space at the end of 2021, to be one of the milestones of astrophysics. “I expect, that we will be able to observe such phenomenon or space operations that we did not know about so far, and that they will bring something unexpected. It’s incredibly exciting,” the scientist describes his feelings. In the podcast, he also touches on his own research – the study of airglow (atmospheric radiation), which compares the aurora borealis and explains its significance. It was within this research that a new method of modeling airglow variability through machine learning and artificial intelligence was developed. Šimon Mackovjak explains what machines have “learned” and considers it as the “fourth pillar” of scientific research – using the amount of available data he can teach machines how phenomena manifest themselves. He also gives examples to illustrate how it makes work easier for scientists. He also mentions the use of the results of another research area – the detection of ionospheric disorders, and describes what is the “space weather”.
One of the important parts of the work of Šimon Mackovjak is the popularization of science. “The main motivation for initiating the SPACE::LAB project, which connects scientists with space research enthusiasts, was to make unique results of the institute’s work available to the public, which was unknown not only to the public but perhaps to many colleagues,” explains and continues, that the SPACE::LAB project he has already created a community of very clever people who are interested in the space.
What Šimon Mackovjak enjoys about his work is that it is not monotonous. “It always brings something new that I can explore, discover, and at the same time ’causes’ new complications that need to be overcome. And most importantly – what I appreciate when working at SAS – it offers a lot of freedom, for example when choosing a research topic,” he adds.
You can find the SAS Scientific Podcast on PodBean, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify applications. You can also listen to the whole interview with Šimon Mackovjak here:
Original author: A. Nozdrovická
Photo: K. Kohoutová