Welcome to Pierre Maxted's home page

I am a Reader in Astrophysics in the Physics department at Keele University where I study binary stars and extrasolar planets.

SuperWASP

I am part of the team at Keele responsible for the operation of the SuperWASP instrument at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), near Sutherland in South Africa.

Thanks to Auke Slotegraaf for this photo of me at SuperWASP-South.

My Research

Extrasolar planets

Operation of SuperWASP South
Characterising hot-Jupiters from transit photometry

Post common-envelope binary stars

Brown dwarf companions to white dwarfs and subdwarfs (e.g., WD0137-349).
Finding the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae by following-up solar-type type stars with a UV excess.
Masses and radii of white dwarfs and their companions in eclipsing systems

Brown dwarf binary stars

Testing models for the formation of brown dwarfs and very low mass stars by measuring how many of them are binaries and estimating their orbital period distribution.

Some useful links

Teaching

PHY-20006 - Quantum mechanics (with Prof. Evans)
PHY-30006 - Astrophysics Group Project and Science Communication
PHY-30027 - Data Analysis and Model Testing

Walking and Climbing

This is me enjoying the scenery during a trip to the Polish Tatra mountains. Most of my walking and climbing has been done with The Outcasts, an outdoor activity group I joined while I was working in Southampton.

Dr Pierre Maxted (pflm@astro.keele.ac.uk)
Astrophysics Group, Dept. Physics and Astronomy
Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG

+44-(0)1782-583457 +44-(0)1782-711093