Qualifications

Master's in Physics, Durham University
PhD in Physics, Durham University

Academic background

My academic career in astronomy began at Durham University during my PhD, which focused on designing and building the first 24-hour atmospheric optical turbulence profiling instrument. Following this, I moved to Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher in the astronomical instrumentation group to work on the integral field spectrograph testbench, and R&D activities for the Planetary Camera and Spectrograph instrument - a planned exoplanet direct-imager for the 39m Extremely Large Telescope. I have also since taken over responsibility for running the Philip Wetton 16" Telescope at Oxford.

Undergraduate teaching

Demonstrator for second/third year optics lab
MPhys project supervisor

Research interests

My research interests include high contrast imaging techniques for direct imaging of exoplanets, integral field spectroscopy and analysis for image-slicer-based integral field units. I am also interested in optical turbulence profiling and its implications for astronomy with large telescopes.