Profile

I’m originally from the Isle of Man, an island in the middle of the British Isles between England and Ireland. I grew up in a small town near the sea. When I was growing up I enjoyed swimming in the sea, something that I still do in Scotland when it’s not too cold outside.

I have lots of interests outside of work. I enjoy getting outside into the beautiful Scottish countryside, particularly on my bicycle. I play a lot of music, particularly folk guitar and singing. When I’m not doing any of these things I like to hang out with my friends and watch films and TV.

I am a cosmologist, which means I study the properties of the whole Universe.

My work involves studying what’s going on far out in space outside of our Milky Way galaxy. If we look far enough we see other galaxies, each containing billions of stars, whose light has taken so long to reach us that we see them at a time when the Universe was much younger than it is today. In this way, I can study the history of the Universe by looking at bright objects that are very far away.

There are many things we do not understand about our Universe, and this is what drives me to find out more.

For example, we know that are Universe is expanding – the distances between galaxies, including our own, appear to be getting larger with time. The expansion has also recently begun to get faster and faster. We think this is caused by a mysterious substance called ‘dark energy’, but we not understand what’s really going on – I am trying to find out. Then there’s dark matter, an invisible form of matter which seems to fill the Universe.

I am trying to solve some of these mysteries. To do this I use several different methods: images of distant galaxies made with big telescopes, computer and mathematical modelling, and statistical methods.

My partner works near the observatory so I usually travel to work with her, either by bicycle or on the bus. The first thing I do when I arrive is get a coffee from the canteen and check the latest astrophysics news online. Then I read my emails, and check my schedule for the day.

Typically my work involves doing some computer programming or pen-and-paper maths. I’ll write computer software to analyse data (usually observations of distant galaxies) and solve the complicated equations that describe the physics of our Universe. I’ll take a break at 11am and go for coffee in the canteen with colleagues. Throughout the day I’ll have meetings that usually last an hour, either in-person or online. At these meetings we’ll talk about the latest results in our area of science research, or about how we’re progressing with our own work. These meetings are often with colleagues from all over the world, in many different time zones.

I’ll have lunch at 1pm in the canteen and then get back to work. I’ll usually have another break around 3.30pm, and then leave the office around 5pm. I’ll usually get home around 6pm.