Emma J. Bunce OBE (born 1975) is a British space physicist and Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics at the University of Leicester.
She is principal investigator (PI) of the MIXS instrument on BepiColombo, was deputy lead on the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer proposal, and co-investigator on the Cassini–Huygens mission.
[5] In 1989 she watched the Horizon documentary on Neptune with images taken by Voyager 2 and was inspired to become a space scientist.
[5] In 1998 Bunce began her doctoral training with Stan Cowley, investigating the magnetosphere of Jupiter.
[8] After her graduate studies, Bunce worked as a postdoctoral researcher investigating the Kronian magnetosphere of Saturn in preparation for Cassini–Huygens.
[8] In 2003 Bunce was awarded a Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council fellowship to study the magnetosphere of Saturn.
[28] Bunce was elected President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2019; she began her term on 26 June 2020[2] and served two years.
[33] Bunce was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to astronomy and science education.