School of Physics and Astronomy

Research Interests

The goal of my work is to understand the formation and evolution of cosmic dust, particularly where it is formed. Cosmic dust is a nuisance to astronomers as it blocks out optical light, affecting our view of the Universe. It is also very important as dust affects star formation, stellar mass loss rates, the formation of molecular hydrogen and planets. Our latest work suggests that supernovae or their progenitor stars may be responsible for polluting the interstellar medium with lots of dust. Previously it was thought that low mass stars, which take around a billion years to evolve, were the main contributor to the dust budget. This is especially important in the early Universe where fast-lived, massive stars would be the only source of dust. I am involved with analyzing data from the Herschel Space Observatory as part of programs such as Mass loss from Evolved StarS, The Herschel Reference Survey and Herschel-ATLAS.

Measures of Esteem

• Referee of several scientific papers for MNRAS and ApJ
• Referee for GEMINI and JCMT telescope applications
• Session chair on Dust production at Conference
• Executive member of the Herschel-ATLAS consortium
• STFC panel member for fellowship applications and referee for STFC grant proposals
• STFC member of Women in SET Focus Group

Prizes and Awards

• Awarded personal research fellowship from Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851
• The RAS Michael Penston prize for best UK thesis in Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Shortlisted for the Times Higher Young Researcher of the Year Award (2005)
• Runner up for the Cavendish medal (most outstanding piece of research and R and D by a younger researcher in the UK) at the SET for Britain event in the House of Commons 2005.

Other: I have been invited to present my research at Buckingham Palace. I am a fellow of the Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851 and Higher Education Academy and part of the WISE in Wales Committee, a campaign which collaborates with industrial and academic partners to encourage UK girls to pursue STEM or construction related courses/careers (I have also been a part of the Role Model series).

Teaching

Current duties:

Module Organiser
• PX3231: Physical Cosmology (single module 10 credits)
• PX2322: Observational Techniques in Astronomy Laboratory and Lecture course(double module 20 credits)

Deputy Module Organiser

• PX1124: Universe

I supervise and assess 3rd and 4th Year project students, run academic tutorials for 1st and 2nd years and personal tutorials for years 1-4.

Previous module organiser for:

• Gregynog (residential course for MPhys project students)
• PX2225: The Physics of Stars
• PX2220: Planetary Systems
• PX1110: Cosmos

I am the Physics' society (Chaos) staff representative.

Admin Duties

I represent the School on the following internal committees

• Chair of Outreach Committee
• Member of Research Committee
• Member of Course Committee
• Member of Web Committee

and the external STFC council Women in SET Committee.