Welcome
I am a lecturer in Astrophysics (previously an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow) at Keele University. My research concerns the formation and dynamics of star clusters and what this can tell us about how stars and star clusters form and evolve.
I use observations at a range of wavelengths from both ground and space-based observatories to study young stars in a number of different clusters and associations. In particular I use high-precision imaging and spectroscopic observations to acquire radial velocities and proper motions for young stars to expose their kinematics and the dynamical processes at work in star clusters.
I am also interested in how feedback from massive stars affects the formation and evolution of nearby low-mass stars and their protoplanetary disks, and how stars generate a magnetic dynamo and emit X-rays.
For more about my research, outreach, and imaging work, please see the links on the left, or check out my blog, A cluster of thoughts.
Recent News
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4MOST proposal submitted for the 4SITE survey! We have submitted a proposal for a large survey with ESO's new multi-object spectrograph, 4MOST, called 4SITE: The 4MOST survey of Stars In Their Environments. We hope to hear whether we're successful in the Summer of 2021. Posted December 15, 2020 |
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Review article published: OB Associations and their origins I present the current state of our understanding of OB associations, summarising recent results from Gaia and spectroscopic surveys that has unveiled the spatial, kinematic and temporal structure of OB associations for the first time. Posted November 18, 2020 |
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PhD student Joe Armstrong passes his PhD viva! Very happy to report that today my PhD student Joe Armstrong had his PhD viva and passed. Congratulations Joe! Posted October 14, 2020 |
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New PDRA in my group: Becky Arnold Joining Keele today as a PDRA with me is Becky Arnold, who previously completed her PhD at Sheffield University and a PDRA at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She will be working on a cross-disciplinary project to explore the use of quantitative spatial diagostics in astrophysics. Posted September 28, 2020 |