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About

Dr Melanie Windridge is a plasma physicist, speaker, writer… with a taste for adventure.

Melanie is the founder and CEO of Fusion Energy Insights, which keeps people up to date with developments in the growing fusion industry.

She is the author of Aurora: In Search of the Northern Lights and Star Chambers, an introductory book on fusion energy.

Melanie loves the mountains and believes science and exploration go hand in hand. She has climbed Mount Everest.

»Find out more about Melanie

Melanie Windridge Aurora Fusion Everest

Photo 1 and 4 by Alun Callender, photo 2 by Tenzing Bhote, photo 3 by David Pan

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Books

Melanie's award-winning book AURORA was released in February 2016. It's available in English and Chinese. She's also written a basic introduction to fusion energy called STAR CHAMBERS.

Plasma physics is what connects the aurora (northern or southern lights) and fusion energy. When Melanie finished her fusion PhD she thought, “I’m a plasma physicist, I should see the most spectacular natural plasma phenomenon,” i.e. the northern lights. So she did, and that started a beautiful journey she never expected, which is retold in her book, Aurora: In Search of the Northern Lights.If you want to truly know about the northern lights in all its facets (science, history, art, travel) then this book is for you. It also tells you how the description you hear about the northern lights from most tour guides is subtly flawed. Get the true story of the aurora by reading this book.

“A brilliant blend of auroral science, polar exploration, Sami heritage and folklore. Melanie Windridge’s book is full of wonders.” The Simple Things magazine

View full colour plates of the images inside AURORA.

Speaking

Melanie is an accomplished speaker who has delivered countless lectures at festivals, events and schools. She mostly speaks about the aurora, fusion energy, Everest, and combining science with adventure.

Melanie is represented by Northbank Talent Management. See the contact page for details and get in touch if you would like Melanie to speak at your event.

Aurora: In Search of the Northern Lights

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Do we really understand the northern lights? Tour operators will have us believe that we do, but there are still mysteries hidden behind the dancing curtains of light.

Interweaving the science with a background of their history, folklore and changing landscape, Aurora brings together space, place and science in magnificent style. In a journey that takes her through Scandinavia, Canada and Svalbard, culminating in a spectacular solar eclipse, Dr. Melanie Windridge delves into the Northern Lights.

Melanie has had some great feedback on this talk. People enjoy the mix of science with a personal, human story that draws them along.

Fusion Future

Fusion is the reaction that powers the stars – small particles colliding and combining produce huge amounts of energy with no greenhouse gases and no long-lived radioactive waste. This makes fusion the ultimate energy source and scientists have been trying to do it on Earth for decades. But it has so far proved elusive.

Looking at the history and the future of fusion energy, we consider why it has taken so long and how, with new technologies, we may be able to get to fusion faster.

Summiting the Science of Everest

Mount Everest – the ultimate endurance challenge – is a place where science plays a huge part in performance and survival. Telling the story of her own summit attempt, Dr Melanie Windridge investigates how advances in science and technology enable ordinary people to summit and survive the extremes.

Impossibles: the meeting of science and adventure

Melanie Windridge is a physicist, speaker, writer… with a taste for adventure.She has travelled the world, gained a doctorate in fusion energy, made inventions for technology companies, appeared on TV, climbed mountains and written books. She works for Tokamak Energy, a private fusion company working towards commercial fusion power. She has skied out across Arctic Svalbard to see the northern lights. She has climbed Everest to highlight the science that makes it safer.

Following Melanie’s journey from childhood to the present day, we find out how Melanie has built a career around her two passions of science and adventure, and how she has come to recognise that the common theme in the elements of her career is the notion of achieving the “impossible”.

“We invited Dr. Melanie Windridge as the expert speaker on our trip to see the aurora borealis in the Northwest Territories of Canada, and she proved to be a great asset to the team. Dr. Windridge delivered a fantastic illustrated talk to our two groups. This was pitched with just the right combination of science and anecdote to appeal to a lay audience who had crossed the world in search of the Northern Lights. Dr Windridge presented the science of the aurora in a way that was entertaining and light. Also, she did a great job of answering the more specific and involved questions from our guests, all of whom thought she was fantastic and were clearly inspired by the stories of her intrepid travels to observe and better understand this amazing atmospheric display.”

Gavin Pretor-Pinney, Founder of The Cloud Appreciation Society