Physics & Astrophysics

I did my undergraduate and postgraduate work in Canada, obtaining a BSc in Mathematical Physics from the University of Alberta, and MSc and PhD degrees in Astrophysics from McMaster University. Subsequently I worked as a research associate in the Astronomy Department of the University of California at Berkeley; as a fibre-optics scientist at a start-up company in Edmonton, Canada; as a research associate at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore (science headquarters for the Hubble Space Telescope); and as a research associate in the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the University of Leicester. I came to Keele in 2007.

I am part of the Astrophysics Group at Keele, and a member of the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM).

Much of my current research is in the general area of stellar dynamics, with emphasis on the internal structure and long-term evolution of massive star clusters; the distribution and motions of star clusters in galaxies, and how the dark-matter content of galaxies can be constrained from this; and the structure and dynamics of dark-matter haloes.

Most recently I have become particularly intrigued by the problem of nuclear star clusters, which are now known to exist at the centres of a majority of galaxies: How do these objects relate to the supermassive black holes that are also found in the centres of most galaxies, and how do the formation and growth of these "central massive objects" influence the evolution of the galaxies around them?

My work is a mixture of theory and data modelling, and I am involved with teams carrying out large observational programmes to investigate some of the issues just mentioned, and more. Please see my personal webpage for further details.

Click here for a full bibliography.

Year 1

• Physics Problem Classes (a component of all year-1 modules)
• PHY-10012 Oscillations and Waves (module leader)