About me
I'm a research astronomer, currently working at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy at Curtin University of Technology, where I'm also the outreach coordinator for the group. You may have heard my voice on the Jodcast where I write and produce the News each month, and occasionally as a presenter. Welcome to my little corner of the interweb, make yourself at home.
Research
I'm a radio astronomer working on starburst galaxies (and, sometimes, AGN). I completed a four-year masters in Physics with Astrophysics before studying for a PhD in radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank Observatory. I stayed on for a bit as a postdoc before moving to Australia to work at Curtin. My PhD had two themes: radio supernovae in nearby starbursts, and masers in the galaxy known as M82.
The first of these themes involved a five year observing project using both the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, and the Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) in England, to observe a sample of ten galaxies searching for new radio supernovae events. The idea is that optical surveys, while easier, could be missing supernovae in the central dusty regions of starburst galaxies because the dust blocks the light. This means that the estimates of the supernova rate are probably underestimated and, since this can be used to estimate the starformation rate in a galaxy, the starformation rates are probably underestimated as well. We discovered two new sources during this project, and did some really neat follow-up work on several other radio supernovae that happened during the project. I did a lot of observing while working on this project, and wrote up the interim results for my PhD.
The other part of my thesis was a study of OH masers in M82. Masers are like lasers, but while lasers in the lab generate huge amplifications through multiple passes of a light beam through a gas, masers in space are single-pass only - there are no giant mirrors to reflect the microwaves back through the amplifying cloud! These masers are often found in galactic disks, including the Milky Way, and can tell us a lot about the dynamics and physical conditions of the OH gas causing the maser effect.
Public Outreach
I'm also very active in public outreach. Back at Jodrell I took part in a placement at Bolton School Boy's Division though the Scientists in Schools programme, ran the Ask An Astronomer sessions in the Visitor Centre, instigated public star parties with the Visitor Centre manager (they still run and are very successful), took an inflatable planetarium out to many schools in the area, did talks to visiting A-level groups, ran tours of the Observatory on open weekends, and helped get the Jodcast off the ground.
At Curtin, I'm the outreach coordinator for CIRA, and we're making the most of the International Year of Astronomy! I work together with AstronomyWA and Scitech on various projects around the area. I've helped out at numerous observing evenings, obtained a grant to buy 2000 IYA planispheres to distribute to Scout groups, run observing evenings on campus for various groups, visited several schools, organised stands for science fairs, got involved with Scientists in Schools, showed people the partial solar eclipse on Australia Day, and been up to Australia's proposed site for the SKA to talk to the local communities about astronomy.
I am also a member of the international SKA Outreach Committee and IAU Commission 55 Communicating Astronomy with the Public.
When I'm not doing astronomy...
...I'm usually found camping, climbing, or playing the guitar. Or
recording audio for the Jodcast or
Librivox.
I also dabble in photography from time to time, mach happier behind the
camera than I am in front of it. While I do have a fairly new digital
camera, I also have a film SLR that my Granddad gave me (it's older than
me but it works beautifully).
Some of my photos are on picasa, and you can
see a random bunch of them in the nifty little flash slideshow on the
right. Some of them have recently appeared in a number of publications.
They are all licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution
Non-Commercial Share-Alike No Derivatives licence, details of which can
be found on the Creative
Commons website. Please let me know if you use them (it's only
polite).
Last updated: Friday, 31-Jul-2009 11:02:07 BST