Prof. Kieran Flanagan is a Professor of Nuclear Physics and Head of the Nuclear Physics Group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, he is also the Director of Photon Science Institute. After graduating from The University of Manchester he undertook his PhD studies with Prof. Jon Billowes and carried out experiments in laser spectroscopy at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.  After his PhD he moved to CERN and worked for KU Leuven on laser spectroscopy and beta-NMR and then moved to Paris to work at IPN-Orsay. He was awarded an STFC Advanced Fellowship in 2009 and re-joined The University of Manchester. During this period, he developed and demonstrated the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) experimental method at ISOLDE CERN.  This technique allowed the measurement of nuclear moments and charge radii in short-lived nuclei towards the limits of existence.  In 2015 he was awarded an ERC consolidator grant, Fundamental Nuclear Properties Measured with Laser Spectroscopy (FNMPLS). His research has focused on size and shapes of nuclei and the underlying forces that bind the nucleus together. His research group in Manchester are developing the CRIS method for the purpose of trace isotope detection in collaboration with UKNNL and the NDA. In 2016 he established a start-up company Artemis Analytical Ltd to commercialise ultra-sensitive mass spectrometry techniques. 

In 2024 he was awarded an Advanced ERC grant, Actinide molecules for exploring the frontiers of fundamental physics (ActMol). This project aims to identify novel exotic molecules to enable future experiments to search for new physics beyond the standard model. Critical to this project and programme is the development of a platform to produce intense cold beams of radioactive molecules for future search experiments.