Dr Leah-Nani Alconcel PhD, FHEA, MRAeS

• PhD – University of California, San Diego
• MSc – University of California, San Diego
• BSc – University of Southern California
• Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society
• Fellow of Advance HE

Dr Alconcel is a spacecraft engineer and associate professor in the School of Metallurgy and Materials. She leads the MSc programme in Space Engineering. She has research interests in payload instrument development and calibration, space situational awareness from space-based platforms, data management and data access for space, and improving inclusivity in research culture. Dr Alconcel has won research and public engagement grants from the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK Space Agency and EPSRC.

 

Dr Alconcel has over 18 years of experience working as an engineer and manager on planetary exploration missions throughout the solar system including the Cassini mission to Saturn, JUICE mission to the Jovian system, and the Cluster multi-spacecraft mission investigating the Earth’s magnetosphere. She has worked on the full life cycle of space missions, from concept and design through to build, launch, operations and end-of-life. She is currently working with colleagues in the Pervasive Sensing group in the School of Engineering on space-based inverse synthetic aperture radar systems for improved Space Domain Awareness (SDA). Please see our dedicated page for this work: https://www.bham.ac.uk/sda.

 

Dr Alconcel has long-standing interests in both photography and public engagement in science and engineering. She has developed funded engagement projects for the Royal Academy of Engineering (Ingenious Award, 2021-22) and the UK Space Agency (Space for All, 2022-23). She is passionate about inclusivity in STEM teaching, and particularly in aerospace and space engineering. She actively strives to recruit and retain a diverse student cohort to the School’s courses.

Dr Alconcel teaches space-focused material for the UG Aerospace programme and the PG Space Engineering masters programme. She leads the following modules:

• Space Mission Analysis and Design
• Communications, Ethics and Teamwork for Space Missions
• CubeSat Design

She also supervises individual research projects.

Current PhD students

• Gruffudd Jones, “Space-based Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR)”, 2022-2025
• Theo Hart, "Techniques for Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and space sustainability", 2024-2028
• Emmanuel Karikari, "Space-based solutions for improved space sustainability", 2024-2028

Future PhD opportunities will be advertised via findaphd.com. Students wishing to express an interest in PhD research with Dr Alconcel should send an e-mail outlining their areas of interest and expertise, as well as how these align with her research. Please also attach an up-to-date CV.

space payload instrumentation, space domain awareness, orbital dynamics, orbital mechanics, SWaP, space systems, space instrument data calibration, space instrument data archiving

Funded policy work

• Midlands Space Cluster Development group – University of Birmingham PI (2023-25)
• Space Academic Network Fellow (2021-22), case study highlight (pdf)

Voluntary work

• Midlands Innovation Space Group member (2023 onward)
• Women in Aerospace – Europe (WIA-Europe) UK committee member, white paper author “Visibility of Female Experts”
• Space Universities Network (SUN UK) committee member
• Royal Aeronautical Society ALTA mentor for women in the UK aerospace sector