Postgraduate Projects

I am always interested in taking on new PhD students to work in my research group. In addition to working on problems in an exciting area of astrophysics (computational cosmology), you will also develop many valuable skills including: code/script development including parallel programming; numerical analysis and management of large datasets; presenting results and working within international collaborations.

Please get in touch if you are interested in working with me. 

Qualifications and Professional Membership

• BSc (Hons 1st class) Astrophysics, University of Edinburgh, 1996
• Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
• PhD (Physics), Durham University, 2000

Research Groups

• Astronomy and Astrophysics

Research Collaborations

• Virgo Consortium (simulations of cosmic structure formation)

I am originally from Dunfermline, Fife. I graduated with a first-class honours BSc in Astrophysics from the University of Edinburgh in 1996. I then studied for a PhD in cosmology at Durham University, supervised by Prof Carlos Frenk, graduating in 2000. After my PhD, I was a PPARC-funded research fellow at the University of Sussex where I worked for nearly 5 years. I then moved on to the University of Oxford in 2004, where I was a Departmental Lecturer in Physics until 2006. I was also a Stipendiary Lecturer at New College from 2005-2006.

In 2007, I joined the University of Manchester as a Lecturer and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2011. During this time I spent 5 years as Programme Director for the Physics with Astrophysics degree. I was promoted to Reader in 2017 and Professor in 2020. I currently teach the third year Cosmology course. I am also the Employability Lead for Physics and Astronomy, and look after our undergraduate work placement degree programme, Physics with Professional Placement.   

I work in the field of computational cosmology, running massively-parallel numerical simulations to study the formation of galaxies, clusters and large-scale structure in the Universe. 

Particular topics that interest me are:

• Cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of galaxies and clusters
• Hydrodynamic simulation methods
• Modelling astrophysical processes, especially feedback from AGN 
• Impact of baryonic physics on cosmological tests

I am a core member of the Virgo consortium, famous for producing ground-breaking simulations such as Millennium, Aquarius and EAGLE. I am also a member of the Euclid consortium.