Dr Christine Charles is Associate Professor at the Australian National University. She has a French Engineering degree in applied physics, a Ph D in plasma physics, a French Habilitation thesis in materials science and a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz. For the past twenty years, she has been working on experimental expanding plasmas and their applications to electric propulsion, microelectronics and optoelectronics, astrophysical plasmas, and more recently to the development of fuel cells for the hydrogen economy. She is the inventor of the Helicon Double Layer Thruster, a new electrode-less magneto-plasma thruster, which applications include satellite station keeping or interplanetary space travel. The thruster concept is based on her discovery in 1999 of the current-free double layer in an expanding radiofrequency plasma. She actively popularises her science on ABC Catalyst, Discovery Channel, radio and public lectures. She enjoys playing music, surfing, canoeing, cycling and bushwalking.
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