Prof. Shadia Habbal

Solar Physics & Astronomy

University of Hawaiʻi

Born in Homs and a graduate of the University of Damascus, Shadia Habbal is Professor of Astronomy at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaiʻi. For more than three decades she has led international expeditions — the "Solar Wind Sherpas" — chasing total solar eclipses across the globe to study the Sun's corona. Her research played a key role in shaping NASA's Parker Solar Probe, the first spacecraft to fly into the Sun's atmosphere. Her work helps explain how energy moves through the Sun's outer atmosphere and how space weather forms — phenomena that affect satellites, communications, and power grids on Earth.