Michael Rycroft

Michael John Rycroft (born July 15, 1938) is an ionospheric physicist. His first degree was from Imperial College London and his PhD was in Meteorological Physics from Churchill College Cambridge (1964). His research is principally in atmospheric electricity, with a focus on ionospheric physics and low frequency radio wave propagation. In 1977 he was a British finalist in a selection process for European astronauts. He began his career at Southampton University (1966-1979) and then moved to the British Antarctic Survey (1979-1990), where he became Director of Physical Science. Subsequently he was professor of aerospace sciences at Cranfield University (1990-1994), then at the International Space University where he remains emeritus professor. He is a member of the Academia Europea.

He has published around 170 papers in the refereed literature, and has co-authored a book on cyclotron masers in space. He is currently editor-in-chief of the journal Surveys in Geophysics and was formerly (until 2000) editor-in-chief of Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. He edited a Golden Jubilee edition of this journal to commemorate its 50th anniversary in 2000, and wrote a highly cited paper on the global atmospheric electric circuit for the same issue