Author Archives: admin_astro

Dr Norman Gray

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Research Fellow

I’m working on ‘Semantic Resource Discovery for the Virtual Observatories’ (aka ‘astronomical data management’, or ‘astroinformatics’, or some variant on that).

Recent projects (PI or Co-I):

  • Sensitivity review ‘Knowledge Exchange’ project, working with The National Archives and GU Computing Science, 2013.
  • MaRDI-Gross ‘Managing Research Data Infrastructures in Big Science’, 2011–2012, JISC
  • AstroDAbis, 2011, JISC
  • Managing Research Data – Gravitational Waves, 2009–2011, JISC
  • Explicator ‘Intelligent access to foreign data models’, 2007–2009, EPSRC
  • SKUA ‘Semantic Knowledge Underpinning Astronomy’, 2008–2009, JISC
  • AGAST ‘Advanced Grid Authorisation through Semantic Technologies’, 2008–2009, JISC

…plus time on projects led by others

Virtual Observatory:

  • Vice-chair, then chair, of IVOA Semantics WG (2010–present)
  • Member of IVOA Technical Coordination Group

Teaching

  • Special Relativity, second year (2000–02 & 2010–)
  • General Relativity, honours (biennially since 2002–03)

Room 605
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: Norman.Gray@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 7111

Personal homepage
(the contents of which are the responsibility of Dr Norman Gray)

Refereed Publications

Dr David Clarke

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Honourary Research Fellow

Stellar Astronomy and Atmospheric Physics – Development of optical equipmemt for undertaking spectropolarimetric measurements of stars and of the radiation from the daytime sky associated with scattering processes within stellar shells, the interstellar medium and the Earth’s atmosphere.

School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: David.Clarke@glasgow.ac.uk

Dr Hugh Hudson

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My research now centers on observations of solar X-rays and flare physics. I also work on solar global structure topics, mainly via RHESSI data. Also there’s an ongoing solar search for axions. I maintain a Web-based archive of flare/CME cartoons and have served as editor of the Yohkoh Science Nuggets, a program now ended. Now I edit the RHESSI Science Nuggets instead. Contributions are always welcome!

Room 620
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: Hugh.Hudson@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 6427
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Personal homepage
(the contents of which are the responsibility of Hugh Hudson)

Professor John C. Brown

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland

As Astronomer Royal for Scotland, I give frequent planetarium shows and talks to schools, the public, and amateur societies, and am involved in using conjuring and other art forms to promote interest in science. From 2003-2006 I was consultant Project Astronomer in the Time and Space Project at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Previously, as Regius Professor of Astronomy, I was Leader of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Group. My main research interests are in solar and stellar plasmas, solar space missions, stellar mass loss and polarimetry, and signal analysis (especially inverse problems). My teaching has covered Exploring the Sky, Stellar Physics/ Compact Objects, Relativity, Theoretical Astrophysics, X-Ray Astrophysics, Exploring Planetary Systems, and Cosmology. I am also Honorary Professor in Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities.

Room 620
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: John.Brown@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 4152

Personal homepage
(the contents of which are the responsibility of Professor John C. Brown)

Dr Alexander Russell

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Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellow

I am investigating whether MHD waves can transport large amounts of energy from the solar corona to the chromosphere during solar flares, and possible mechanisms by which these waves might accelerate electrons to high energies. I am especially keen to exploit parallels with auroral physics, building bridges between solar and magnetospheric physics. My work is supported by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.

Room 620
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: Alexander.Russell@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 6427
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Personal homepage
(the contents of which are the responsibility of Alexander Russell)

Dr Alasdair Wilson

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mugshot

I am a postdoctoral research associate primarily interested in the theoretical and numerical modeling of both laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. In particular my past work has involved low temperature, partially ionized plasmas.

Room 616
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: Alasdair.Wilson@glasgow.ac.uk

Tel: +44 141 330 3816

Dr Fraser Watson

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I am working on a PhD in Solar Physics with Dr. Lyndsay Fletcher and I am currently busy with automated feature detection in solar images making use of image processing techniques. At the moment, my research involves looking at the fragmentation and breakup of solar active regions by studying MDI magnetograms I am also actively involved with the Astro group outreach program and had an active role in planetarium shows in schools as part of the Constellation Project with Professor John Brown. This was a project to promote Astronomy during IYA2009.

Room 604
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: f.watson@astro.gla.ac.uk

Tel: +44 141 330 2960
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Personal homepage
(the contents of which are the responsibility of Fraser Watson)

Dr Heather Ratcliffe

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I am working on a PhD with Dr Eduard Kontar, considering the evolution of flare-accelerated electron beams, and am now in my 4th and final year. I have been using 0 or 1-D simulations to investigate the effects of density inhomogeneities on plasma waves, which can lead to acceleration of electrons. I’m also looking at Type III radio emission, which is generated by electron beams, and developing a code to simulate this, working with Dr Hamish Reid in Meudon.

In addition, I’ve assisted at and run many planetarium shows and observatory tours, for all age groups, from Cub scouts up to retired RAF officers, most recently an event for Nasa’s Curiosity rover in Glenelg, Scotland.

Room 604
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: hratcliffe@astro.gla.ac.uk

Google Scholar Profile: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KwC67BAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Tel: +44 141 330 2960

Dr Natasha Jeffrey

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I am currently a postdoctoral research assistant and I am interested in solar flare physics.
My main areas of research are:
 
  1. Solar flare UV/EUV line spectroscopy and deducing solar flare heated plasma/ion properties.
  2. Solar flare X-ray emission and deducing the properties of solar flare accelerated electrons.

Publications

Current CV

Google Citations

Room 614
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland
Email: natasha.jeffrey@glasgow.ac.uk

Tel: +44 141 330 0855

Dr David Graham

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Postdoctoral Researcher

I have recently completed my PhD in Solar Physics supervised by Dr. Lyndsay Fletcher.

My research interests lie in the EUV spectroscopy of solar flare footpoints, using the space based instruments Hinode/EIS, SDO/EVE, and RHESSI to study the effects of heating the solar atmosphere to extreme temperatures during flares.

 

Room 604
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland
Email: d.graham@astro.gla.ac.uk

Tel: 0141 330 2960
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Dr Christina Burge

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I am working on modelling particle acceleration in turbulent magnetic fields, with particular applications to reconnection regions in the solar corona. I will be working at BAS in Cambridge for part of each year. My supervisors are Dr Alec MacKinnon and Dr Panagiota Petkaki.

I’m a member of the UKSP council, representing the intrests of PhD students within UKSP.

I’m also involved in the outreach work that the department undertakes, and I enjoy working with groups of young astronomers both at the observatory and in the mobile planetarium.

Room 604
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland
Email: c.burge@astro.gla.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 2960
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Dr Euan David Bennet

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Postdoctoral Researcher

I am working on aspects of Cosmic Magnetism, which covers a range of topics. At the moment I am looking at a mechanism by which electrons can be accelerated (by collapsing current densities) at recombination and provide a non-thermal component to the Cosmic Microwave Background. I will also be looking at other distribution-related effects which contribute to the CMB, with a view to determining the limits on the information we can extract from it about the primordial Universe.

Other research interests include Galaxy formation.

Room 616
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland
Email: ebennet@astro.gla.ac.uk

Tel: x3816
Fax: +44 141 330 8600
Refereed Publications

Dr Paulo Simoes

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Postdoctoral Researcher
My research has been mostly focused on the analysis of observational data of solar flares, investigating the properties of high-energy particles (through radio/microwave and X-rays data, and also computational simulations) and evolution of the flaring regions, mostly using ultraviolet/X-rays data. Currently, I am investigating the characteristics of the flaring chromosphere, through the analysis of multi-wavelength data, using computational flare models and evaluating the comparison of data vs. models.

Room 605
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: Paulo.Simoes@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 4502
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Personal homepage
(the contents of which are the responsibility of Paulo Simoes)

Refereed Publications

Dr Hugh Potts

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KT Research Fellow

Research Areas

  • Atmospheric pressure plasmas for germicidal applications
    This experimental study is currently my main area of work. We have developed a novel process (patents filed) for producing ozone inside sealed containers, allowing us to sterilise the contents without opening the container or exposing the operator to ozone. A company (Anacail Ltd) was formed in February 2011 to exploit this technology.
  • Flatfield correction for SOHO MDI
    The SOHO satellite has been spectacularly successful at imaging the sun, and has now been operating continuously in the harsh environment of space for more than 12 years. In that time the CCD camera and optics have sustained significant radiation damage. We have developed a new technique for correcting the optical and CCD errors, producing a database of flatfields which can be used to reduce the flat fielding errors on the instrument by around a factor of 10. The repository of flatfields is hosted with the main MDI data service at Stanford University: http://soi.stanford.edu/sssc/MDI_continuum_hr_flatfields/flatfields.html and is mirrored locally here.
  • Solar flows and magnetic interactions
    The dynamics of small scale magnetic elements on the photosphere of the sun are dominated by their hydrodynamic interaction with the photospheric flows at the granular and supergranular scales. We have developed novel image analysis techniques (for example balltrack, codes available at http://code.google.com/p/solar-flow-tracking/) to analyse the fluid and magnetic element motion in the photosphere to investigate the energetics of these small scale interactions.
  • Magnetic Focusing of Therapeutic, Diagnostic or Prophylactic Agents to Deep Tumors.
    This is a collaboration with Dr Ben Shapiro at the University of Maryland in the US.
  • Ferrofluid dynamics
    Investigating the free surface dynamics of ferrofluid surface waves and freely suspended drops.

Room 616
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: Hugh.Potts@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 3816
Fax: +44 141 330 8600

Personal homepage
(the contents of which are the responsibility of Dr Hugh Potts)

Refereed Publications

Dr Iain Hannah

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Senior Lecturer

I am primarily interested in Solar flares which I investigate through RHESSI hard X-ray imaging and spectroscopy, multi-wavelength analysis, statistical surveys and numerical simulations. I also work on quiet Sun X-ray emission, the observations and possible emission mechanisms.

Room 617
School of Physics and Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland

Email: Iain.Hannah@glasgow.ac.uk
Tel: +44 141 330 5182

Personal homepage
(the contents of which are the responsibility of Iain Hannah)

Refereed Publications