Click on a name for further information and contact details. The root of the email addresses is "@nottingham.ac.uk"
Omar's research is focused on the formation and evolution of galaxies in the distant Universe. A particular interest is to understand why the most massive galaxies suddenly cease their star formation at early times, and to understand the growth and influence of supermassive black holes. He leads the Ultra Deep Survey, the deepest infrared survey ever undertaken over such a large area of sky.
Alfonso works in the field of extragalactic astronomy, focusing on how galaxies form and transform. His work combines detailed studies of local galaxies with observations of the galaxy population at intermediate and high redshifts.
Steven is primarily interested in the links between the morphology, star-formation and assembly histories of galaxies, and particularly the competition between internal and environmental processes in producing the present-day galaxy population. He studies galaxy morphologies in large surveys both visually, via the Galaxy Zoo project, and quantitatively, by developing novel techniques to decompose galaxy structures.
Jamie’s research focuses on the physics of the intergalactic medium and the epoch of reionisation. He uses cosmological simulations performed on some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to investigate the interplay between galaxies and gas in the early Universe.
Simon works in the field of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. His main area of research is the study of galaxy evolution. In particular, he is interested in determining how dark matter evolves in galaxies by exploiting the phenomenon of gravitational lensing. He also uses multi-wavelength surveys which span from the UV to the sub-millimetre, to measure the formation and evolution of stars in galaxies. On the theory side, he develops new statistical techniques for use in cosmology.
I achieved first class honours for a Master of Physics (MPhys) degree in Physics at Durham University in 2010. I completed my PhD, Seeing the Light: Foreground Removal in the Dark and Dim Ages, at University College London. I won the University College London Chris Skinner Department of Physics and Astronomy Thesis Prize. During this time I became concerned about PhD culture and how it impacts women. My research interests remain in seeking out the first stars through have widened from looking only at foreground removal, instead looking at the idea of using optical surveys and stellar archaeology. I have carried on my gender equality work with passion, being a proud member of The 1752 Group, a group campaigning and providing solutions for power-based sexual misconduct. My personal bug bear has been the enforced use of NDAs on victims and I have spoken at great length to the media and to parliament about this issue. I also enjoy doing outreach of a much happier kind, spreading my love of astronomy and how anyone can access it and wonder at the questions it provokes. I give talks at festivals, local pubs, on radio and my first book, First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time, published by Bloomsbury, is out now.
Meghan's research combines galaxy evolution with a long-standing interest in large-scale structure. In particular, she employs observations of massive galaxy clusters to understand the physical processes that transform galaxies in dense environments. She is an enthusiastic science communicator, and is a regular contributor to Sixty Symbols and Deep Sky Videos YouTube channels.
Nina researches the formation of galaxies and clusters of galaxies in the distant Universe. She uses the world’s most powerful telescopes to observe galaxies and clusters caught in the process of forming, and uses computer simulations to interpret these observations.
Mike primarily investigates the nature of nearby galaxies with a particular interest in their dynamical properties, seeking to use the motions of gas and stars in these systems to understand how they formed. He has a strong interest in scientific outreach, helping to found the award-winning Sixty Symbols YouTube channel and setting up a spin-out company, Crystal Nebulae, which produces laser-cut crystal glass sculptures of astronomical objects such as the galaxies he studies.
Frazer specialises in the theory of the formation of structure in the Universe. In particular he models the evolution of clusters of galaxies using some of the worlds largest parallel supercomputers. He also has interests in X-ray emission from clusters and the feedback of energy due to supernovae explosions.
Helen studies the most energetic events in the lives of massive galaxies - powerful jetted outbursts from their central supermassive black hole and massive collisions between huge clusters of galaxies. Powerful jets of high-energy particles launched in the strong gravitational environment around a supermassive black hole can heat up the surrounding gas and suppress star formation to choke off the growth of the host galaxy. Major cluster mergers are the most energetic events in the Universe since the Big Bang. The energy generated by the collision is dissipated in shocks and turbulence, which heat up and disrupt the hot gas atmospheres surrounding the constituent galaxies. Helen uses observations at radio to X-ray wavelengths to study these events and their impact on galaxy and cluster structure.
Ulrike's research explores pathways and timescales needed to reconstruct the buildup of matter in the Universe. She is interested in identifying the physical processes responsible for the evolution of galaxies with cosmic time and environment, and how their evolution relates to their mass, star formation rate, and chemical composition. As part of the WEAVE, Euclid and CLASH collaborations, her work uses high-quality observational data which she connects to hydrodynamical simulations to fully connect and predict performances of future observations, and increasingly makes use of super-computers and (deep) machine learning to find solutions for exploiting future extra-large surveys.
As a core member of the WEAVE Wide-Field Cluster Survey, Ulrike maps, characterises and studies how matter organises itself as a giant cosmic web, constructed of large-scale filaments and galaxy clusters at their intersections. This is the perfect laboratory to investigates the importance of pre-processing, and cluster-specific phenomena in comparison to internal processes.
Having obtained an additional degree in fine arts, she is also actively working on the inter- and transdisciplinary approach of combining art and science as a means to investigate new ways of answering common questions.
After obtaining a PhD from the University of Birmingham, Maggie went on to do a research fellowship at the European Space Agency. Currently, Maggie is developing bayesian statistics and machine learning methods to apply on clusters of galaxies. Her research mainly focusses on obtaining accurate cluster mass measurements to be used for cosmology.
David works with Omar Almaini on the Ultra Deep Survey. His research interests focus on the morphological evolution of distant galaxy populations and the properties of recently-quenched galaxies.
Margherita's research focuses on computational simulations of the Epoch of Reionisation. She also works on developing new techniques for modelling the propagation of light in a variety of astrophysical simulations. In particular, she developed ARTIST, a highly efficient radiative transfer code designed for cosmological applications. She is also the founder and coordinator of Astro Molo Mhlaba (www.astromolomhlaba.org).
Julian works with computer simulations of large fractions of the universe to understand trends in galaxy formation and evolution. Investigating the tools that help us form and analyse such simulations such as halo finders, tree builders and semi-analytic models. He also does a number of outreach activities, giving talks to astronomy societies and other interested groups such as rotary and U3A, as well as working with schools and scouts/guide groups. He also helps with the teaching of undergraduates in some of the astronomy courses.
I specialise mainly in applying Bayesian analyses to big data. My research attempts to quantify and then disentangle scatter and selection effects from well-known scaling relations. I will be using the latest radio/spectroscopic data from WEAVE-LOFAR to study the evolution of galaxies. My most recent work includes characterising how the relationship between the far-infrared and low frequency radio emission from star-forming galaxies changes over the properties of those galaxies. I have also branched out to develop photometric reverberation mapping techniques for use with large photometric surveys such as LSST.
Ting-Yun works with Prof. Christopher Conselice and Prof. Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca. Her research focuses on analysing Dark Energy Survey (DES) data through using Machine Learning to investigate galaxy morphology.
Dan works with Meghan Gray, Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca and Frazer Pearce on galaxy clusters. He uses simulations, namely TheThreeHundred project, and will use observational data from the up-and-coming WEAVE Wide Field Cluster Survey to look at clusters and their environments.
Lizzie works with Omar Almaini and Michael Merrifield. Her research focuses on using variability to identify Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) field.
Leonardo works with Prof. Christopher Conselice. His research focuses on investigating galaxy morphology using Machine Learning techniques. He is also an Astropy collaborator.
Karel works with Prof. O. Almaini and Prof. M. Merrifield. Her research focuses on AGN and galaxy evolution.
Michael works with Prof. Mike Merrifield and Prof. Alfonso Aragon-Salamanca on the MaNGA survey. His research involves measuring the spatial distribution of dust in nearby spiral galaxies, as well as accurately correcting for dust extinction, to learn about important properties of the host galaxies.
Alex works with Prof. Christopher Conselice, investigating compact galaxy groups as potential gravitational lenses. His research is focused on determining the best targets for upcoming JWST observations in order to study the first galaxies.
Roan works with Frazer Pearce and Meghan Gray. His research focuses on simulations of galaxy clusters.
Jacob works with Simon Dye, using strong gravitational lensing to study galaxies. His research will focus on using ALMA data to follow up on H-ATLAS discoveries of strong lensing systems at high redshift.
Joel works with Jamie Bolton and Nina Hatch on detecting and studying protoclusters. His research focuses on using Lyman-alpha absorption in quasar spectra to trace the intra-protocluster gas, in both hydrodynamical simulations and observational data.
James works with Simon Dye, trying to use convolutional neural network (CNN) machine learning to detect strong galaxy-galaxy gravitational lenses in simulated images, in preparation for future surveys, notably by the LSST (operational in 2019) and the Euclid Telescope (launching in 2020).
Lizzie works with Omar Almaini and Mike Merrifield on galaxy quenching mechanisms affecting post-starburst galaxies.
Ella Batchlor is the secretary of the Centre for Astronomy & Particle Theory. She deals with all general and administrative enquiries.
Phil Parry is the Research Support Officer for the Centre for Astronomy & Particle Theory.