Forschungsinteressen
I am a doctoral researcher focussing on space plasma physics. My main interests are the solar wind and its interaction with the terrestial planets, including global magnetospheric physics and space weather effects. Currently, I am developing my own magnetohydrodynamic model of Mercury’s magnetosphere coupled with particle simulations to investigate the electric fields in the magnetosphere, and the origin, evolution and acceleration processes of ions at Mercury. With the arrival of the ESA/JAXA mission BepiColombo at Mercury, my simulations will be able to support and interpret the upcoming spacecraft measurements.
Vita
Roles in Space Missions:
PhD Student: MPPE/MSA and SERENA/PICAM on BepiColombo
Education and Employment:
2024 – present: PhD Student, Planetary Plasma Environment group, MPS
2021 – 2024: M.Sc. Physics, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
2017 – 2021: B.Sc. Physics, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
Selected Publications:
Prencipe, F., Fränz, M., Exner, W., Hallebach, L., Holzkamp, H., Heyner, D., Krupp, N., Plaschke, F., Narita, Y., (2026). Modelling the Global Electric Field in the Hermean Magnetosphere with Hall MHD Simulations [preprint].
doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-10616390/v1
Grimmich, N., Prencipe, F., Turner, D. L., Liu, T. Z., Plaschke, F., Archer, M. O., Nakamura, R., Sibeck, D. G., Mieth, J. Z. D., Auster, H. - U., Constantinescu, O. D., Fischer, D., Magnes, W. (2024b). Multi Satellite Observation of a Foreshock Bubble Causing an Extreme Magnetopause Expansion. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 129.3, e2023JA032052.
doi:10.1029/2023JA032052.
Grimmich, N., Plaschke, F., Grison, B., Prencipe, F., Escoubet, C. P., Archer, M. O., Constantinescu, O. D., Haaland, S., Nakamura, R., Sibeck, D. G., Darrouzet, F., Hayosh, M., Maggiolo, R., (2024a). The Cluster spacecrafts’ view of the motion of the high-latitude magnetopause. Annales Geophysicae 42.2, pp. 371–394.
doi:10.5194/angeo-42-371-2024.
Fränz, M., Krüger, H., Raines, J. M., Glass, A. N., Gershman, D. J., Prencipe, F., Krupp, N., Hadid, L. Z., Delcourt, D., Aizawa, S., Yokota, S., Harada, Y., Saito, Y., (2025). He+ ions in the vicinity of mercury observed by the MESSENGER and BepiColombo spacecraft. Planetary and Space Science 265, p. 106152.
doi:10.1016/j.pss.2025.106152.