Professor Robert Wicks

Dr. Wicks research covers the physics of plasma in the solar corona, solar wind, and near-Earth environment. He is an expert in the design and use of space plasma instrumentation onboard satellites and is a co-investigator of the ESA Solar Orbiter mission Solar Wind Analyser EAS instrument. He analyses data from spacecraft to investigate the processes that heat and accelerate plasma, especially turbulence and waves. He also works on space weather and risk mitigation. Dr Wicks is a keen space technologist with current projects including the development of a laser communications system for CubeSats and the proposal of future missions to the UK Space Agency and ESA for astrophysical plasma physics research.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• ALIGN: 1 Gbps Optical Inter-Satellite Link Demonstration on 6U CubeSats with the FOCUS Terminal, Riaz, A., Scullion, E., Wicks, R., Binns, R., Obreque, E., Khorchef, N., Martin, J., Vernon, J. 28 May 2026, 2026 IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshops, ICC Workshops 2026 - Proceedings, Piscataway, NJ, IEEE
• ALIGN: Laboratory Characterisation of 976 nm Beacon and 1550 nm Data Lasers for CubeSat Free-Space Optical Inter-Satellite Links, Riaz, A., Scullion, E., Wicks, R., Vernon, J., Binns, R., Khorchef, N., Obreque, E., Martin, J. 12 May 2026, 2026 6th Middle East and North Africa Communications Conference (MENACOMM), Piscataway, NJ, IEEE
• A New Methodology for Inferring the Plasma Conditions in Solar Flare Energetic Electron Source Regions from In Situ Electron Energy Spectra, Carter, S., Jeffrey, N., Wicks, R., Nicolaou, G. 1 Sep 2026, In: The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
• Characterisation of amplified laser beam profiles subject to changing EDFA pump currents in CubeSats, Riaz, A., Scullion, E., Wicks, R., Ahmed, Z., Obreque, E., Khorchef, N., Vernon, J., del Valle, C., Zia-Ul-Mustafa, R., Binns, R., Martin, J. 5 Mar 2026, Free-Space Laser Communications XXXVIII, Washington, United States, SPIE
• High-Speed CubeSat Optical Transceiver Characterization Using Integrated PSD-APD Receiver for PAT-Enabled Links, Riaz, A., Scullion, E., Obreque, E., Wicks, R., Vernon, J., Binns, R., Khorchef, N., Martin, J. 15 Jul 2026, 2026 IEEE Photonics Society Summer Topicals Meeting Series, SUM 2026 - Proceedings, Piscataway, NJ, IEEE
• Evidence for a link between turbulence and the generation of ion cyclotron waves via the helicity barrier effect in the solar wind, Panchal, U., Wicks, R., Stawarz, J. 20 Apr 2025, In: The Astrophysical Journal
• Pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking (PAT) for Optical Satellite Communications: Recent Trends and the ALIGN UK Mission’s PAT Mechanism, Zia-Ul-Mustafa, R., Graham, C., Obreque, E., Binns, R., Scullion, E., Wicks, R., Martin, J., Riaz, A., Khorchef, N., Vernon, J., Bourgenot, C. 28 Oct 2025, 2025 IEEE International Conference on Space Optical Systems and Applications (ICSOS), Piscataway, NJ, IEEE
• Severe Space Weather Impacts on UK Critical National Infrastructure, Allcock, M., Pidgeon, A., Black , G., Prestwood, E., Frayling, A., Cucaro, S., Lecky, W., Coxon, J., Smith, A., Bentley, S., Watt, C., Wicks, R., Rae, J. 1 Jan 2025
• Design and control of a steering mirror for a freespace optical communications CubeSat for gigabit inter-satellite links, Graham, C., Bramall, D., Younus, O., Riaz, A., Binns, R., Scullion, E., Wicks, R., Bourgenot, C. 3 Oct 2024, CubeSats, SmallSats, and Hosted Payloads for Remote Sensing VIII, San Diego, SPIE
• Overview of Space-Based Laser Communication Missions and Payloads: Insights from the Autonomous Laser Inter-Satellite Gigabit Network (ALIGN), Younus, O., Riaz, A., Binns, R., Scullion, E., Wicks, R., Vernon, J., Graham, C., Bramall, D., Schmoll, J., Bourgenot, C. 5 Nov 2024, In: Aerospace

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• ROARS - CubeSats Revealing Orbital and Atmospheric Responses to Solar Activity, Scullion, E. (Principal Investigator), Wicks, R. (Co Investigator), European Space Agency, 02/10/23 - 01/04/24, £8,197.00
• Laser Communication and Cubesat - Phase 3, Scullion, E. (Principal Investigator), Wicks, R. (Co Investigator), UK Space Agency, 01/12/22 - 31/03/25, £4,687,593.00
• Silverlight, the laser power conversion project, Barrioz, V. (Principal Investigator), Wicks, R. (Co Investigator), Lockheed Martin UK Ltd, 01/09/22 - 31/12/23, £150,000.00
• Laser Communications in CuebSats, Scullion, E. (Principal Investigator), Wicks, R. (Co Investigator), UK Space Agency, 01/10/21 - 31/03/22, £647,283.00

• Ben Dobbing Development of a novel sensor for measuring electron energisation in space plasmas. Start Date: 01/10/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025
• Utsav Panchal Plasma thermodynamics of the inner heliosphere with Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe Start Date: 01/10/2022 End Date: 17/10/2025
• Ben Dobbing Development of a novel sensor for measuring electron energisation in space plasmas. Start Date: 01/10/2025
• Utsav Panchal Investigating the link between the solar wind turbulence cascade and ion cyclotron waves in the inner heliosphere? Start Date: 01/10/2022

Dr Wicks was the PI for the Debye mission proposal to the ESA F-Class mission call in 2018/19.

Find out more about the ESA Solar Orbiter mission here. If you are interested in the use of data from Solar Orbiter for scientific research, public outreach, or any other purpose, you can find the Solar Orbiter data archive here, and please ask Dr Wicks if you would like adivce on how to use the data.

You can watch Dr Wicks lecture on the topic of space weather here, if you are interested in learning more as part of an undergraduate or graduate physics degree, then take a look at the Northumbria Physics BSc, Physics with Astrophysics BSc, MPhys and PhD programme webpages.

• Physics PhD December 01 2008
• Physics MSc June 30 2005
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy FHEA 2018