Image credits, left to right: [1] Art: Measuring mistakes by Ulrike Kuchner. Lapel pin: CepheidStudio. [2] EROJ003707+0909.5, aka the space-invader. [3] Mapping dark matter with gravitational lensing. [4] Searching for gravitationally lensed gravitational waves.
About me..
I am a Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the University of Birmingham's Extragalactic Astronomy group. I am Project Scientist for the LSST:UK Consortium (since 2024). I was awarded the Ida Pfeiffer Professorship by the University of Vienna (in 2024) and a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship (in 2021).
I first encountered Physics at Mirfield High School, where I was taught by Derek Fry and Henry Allinson. I was then the first member of my family to attend university when I arrived at the University of Oxford as an undergraduate. Since graduation I have worked and studied in Birmingham, Chicago, Durham, Leeds, London, Pasadena, and Vienna.
My main research focus and expertise is gravitational lensing — the delay, deflection, and magnification of signals by gravitational fields. My interests include cosmology, including the nature of dark matter (DM) and dark energy, and the large-scale structure of the universe. As a phenomenologist I use models to interpret data and constrain theory.
I initially used gravitational lensing to investigate the structure of galaxy clusters and how their properties scale with the mass of the underlying dark matter halo. I received the Fowler Award this work by the Royal Astronomical Society (in 2007), and was a co-recipient of an award from the Astronomical Society of Japan (2012).
My curiosity about gravitationally lensed gravitational waves (in 2008) has been re-ignited in recent years. My group now works on topics related to multi-messenger detections of lensed explosive transients and the novel constraints on cosmology and astrophysics that they will unlock — in summary, multi-messenger gravitational lensing.
Members of my group play leading roles in the Vera C. Rubin Observatory (Rubin) Strong Lensing Science Collaboration (SLSC), shaping the Rubin Target of Opportunity (ToO) programme, discovering strong lenses in science verification data, and searching for lensed transients. I am a SLSC Builder and was co-Chair (2020-2024).
My approach to education reflects my passion for astronomy as a vehicle to help people to make data-driven decisions in modern society, and my broad background. Before astronomy I spent almost a decade in the business world, including a few years as an Honourary Lecturer at the Bradford School of Management.
I was most active in public engagement when I was Director of the University of Birmingham's Observatory, and co-founded Astronomy in the City. Among a few TV appearances at that time, one favourite eclipsed them all.
