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Job title: Reader in Astronomy

Memberships and Appointments:

- Member James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Board

My research specialism is the branch of observational astronomy called 'Galaxy Formation and Evolution'. Massive galaxies are thought to have formed early in the Universe's history (over 10 billion years ago). My research is aimed at studying the properties of these distant proto-galaxies, and piecing together how they evolved to become the galaxies we see today. Within this broad area of research, I focus on observations made in the submillimetre and far-infrared wavebands. These observations are difficult to make from the ground but are possible from very high mountain sites or from space.

(From 2001) Discovery that a subset of quasi-stellar objects (those showing absorption in the X-ray band) are luminous emitters of submillimetre radiation. This breakthrough, published in the journal 'Science', led to the development of an evolutionary scheme linking these objects with an earlier epoch of simultaneous black hole and stellar mass growth. (From 2003). Discovery of numerous massive star-forming galaxies at high mass peaks in the early Universe. These proto-galaxies can be identified with the early formation epoch of elliptical galaxies now found in rich clusters. Initial results were published in the journal 'Nature'.

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