Dr Cara Waters

Cara Waters
MSci, PhD, MInstP, FRAS

Postdoctoral Research Associate

School of Physical and Chemical Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
Member of Dr Christopher Chen's Research Group
Centre for Theoretical Physics and Astronomy
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Research

space plasma physics, space physics, heliophysics, space weather, machine learning

Interests

I work at the intersection of machine learning, fundamental space plasma physics, and space weather, aiming to bridge first-principles understanding of plasma processes with real world prediction of solar impacts on society. My research focuses on connecting microscale dynamics - such as turbulence, particle energisation, and magnetic reconnection - to large scale solar-terrestrial interactions and their consequences for the near-Earth environment.

I develop physics informed, interpretable machine learning approaches that integrate observational data, simulations, and theory. This includes using data driven methods to uncover physically meaningful structure in complex plasma environments, and to improve forecasting of geoeffective conditions. More broadly, my work seeks to couple fundamental plasma physics with operational space weather models, enabling more reliable prediction of how solar variability affects technological systems and infrastructure, such as power networks and satellites.