I'm a postgraduate astrophysicist working in the astrophysics group at the University of Exeter. My PhD project, under the supervision of Professor Tim Naylor, involves studies of planet forming stars. In this project we hope to be able to observationally study the mechanisms of planet formation around young stars in an attempt to validate current theory. I also undertook a masters degree at the University of Exeter in which my colleagues and I developed new laws which can theoretically remove the effect of interstellar dust from observations. This is very important in modern astrophysics as a ton of interesting phenomena occur in dense regions which have dust in their line-of-sight. For more information feel free to check out my research interests.
I also have many other interests outside of my immediate research area. I am current project leader for the Exeter Radio Telescope at Caradon (XRT-C) project in which students from Exeter are building and operating a 4.5 metre radio telescope for research and educational use by students around the UK. This project is now part of the Space Exe student society in the University of Exeter Students' Guild, in which I have held the position of Science and Engineering officer since it's founding in 2015. Another topic that also intrigues me is weather and climate modelling, such as the work done at the Met Office just down the road. In particular the application of their general circulation model, the Unified Model (UM), to the modelling of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets, such as the work done by Dr. Nathan Mayne and his colleagues in the University of Exeter's Astrophysics Group.
In my spare time I like to write code, especially for scientific code and websites. I have throughout my time done web development and graphic design semi-professionally, working with numerous clients and design agencies. I usually have a number of ongoing project of various types, so feel free to check on my projects page and see what I've been up to recently.
I'm also a semi-professional musician. As well as holding A-levels in Music Technology, and having been an occasional producer for albums, I play lead guitar in a 13-piece band, Soul Traders. My first love however is the work of Queen, hence my often playing a replica of Brian May's Red Special on stage. If you want to see us playing, you can check out website for upcoming gigs.
Education and Employment
- 2011 - 2015 - MPhys Physics with Astrophysics (Hons) - University of Exeter
- 2015 - Present - PhD Physics (Astrophysics) - University of Exeter
Memberships
- 2011 - 2016 - Student Member of the Institute of Physics (IOP)
- 2015 - Present - Member of the UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UKSEDS)
- 2016 - Present - Member of the British Humanist Association (BHA)
- 2016 - Present - Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS)
- 2017 - Present - Associate Member of the Institute of Physics (AMInstP)
- 2017 - Present - Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
Other Positions
- 2011 - Present: Science, Outreach and Press & PR Teams - XRT-C Project
- 2015 - 2017: Science and Engineering Officer - Space:Exe
- 2016 - Present: Project Leader - XRT-C Project
- 2017 - Present: President - Space:Exe
