I am a Professor of Astrophysics, and the Head of Science Operations and User Support for the e-MERLIN/VLBI National Facility and deputy Director of the UK's SKA Science Regional Centre.

I play a key role within the University of Manchester's Interferometric Centre of Excellence which draws together research and operational staff working on e-MERLIN, VLBI, ALMA, LOFAR and the SKA. 

My main areas of research are extragalactic radio astronomy, encompassing star-formation and accretion processes through cosmic time, spectral line observations at high resolution, transient astronomical events and radio interferometric techniques. I am PI (along with Ian McHardy, Southampton) of the e-MERLIN Legacy project, Legacy e-MERLIN Multi-band imaging of Nearby Galaxies (LeMMINGS), which has been granted a total of 810hrs of e-MERLIN time. This programme will image 300 nearby galaxies with sub-arcsecond resolutions and microJansky sensitivities.

Potential PhD Projects 

1) Supernovae and Starformation in the starburst galaxy  M82

Starburst galaxies exhibit high rates of star-formation and are responsible for a large fraction of the massive stars formed in the local Universe. Within each of these star-forming galaxies, massive stars quickly evolve to produce significant populations of supernovae and supernova remnants, which can be used to probe the ongoing star-formation rate, supernovae astrophysics and the ISM environment. Whilst significant star-formation occurs in the centre of these galaxies, the high level of dust and gas obscures much of this star-formation from view.   This project will use new state-of-the-art, very high resolution, radio observations to provide an unobscured view of the compact radio emission arising from this ongoing star-formation. Using one of the world's most powerful radio telescopes (e-MERLIN, http://www.e-merlin.ac.uk), extremely sensitive observations of the nearby, prototypical starburst galaxy M82 have been made, revealing more than 100 radio supernova remnants, compact HII regions, new supernovae and more mysterious objects that are yet to be classified. This project will utilise these new observations to study the population of compact radio sources in order to enhance our understanding of the star-formation process and evolution of supernovae and their remnants. In addition, deep radio imaging has been demonstrated to reveal an unexpected population of compact sources in M82 whose properties we are only beginning to understand.

* Several other pojects are available. Please contact me if you have any questions

I am a Professor of Astrophysics, and Head of Science Operations and User Support for the e-MERLIN/VLBI National Facility and deputy Director of the UK'S SKA Science Regional Centre. I play a key role within the University of Manchester's Interferometric Centre of Excellence which draws together research and operational staff working on e-MERLIN, VLBI, ALMA, LOFAR and the SKA. 

My main areas of research are extragalactic radio astronomy, encompassing star-formation and accretion processes through cosmic time, spectral line observations at high resolution, transient astronomical events and radio interferometric techniques. I am PI (along with Ian McHardy, Southampton) of the e-MERLIN Legacy project, Legacy e-MERLIN Multi-band imaging of Nearby Galaxies (LeMMINGs). This programme is imaging 300 nearby galaxies with sub-arcsecond resolutions and microJansky sensitivities.

Contact Address:

Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, The Alan Turing Building, School of Physics and Astronomy,

The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

Tel : +44-161-2750483

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Jodrell Bank Observatory,

Lower Withington, The University of Manchester,

Maccelsfield, Cheshire, SK11 9DL, UK

Tel : +44-161-3069400