People on Astronomy & Astrophysics Group | University of Glasgow

Aidan Miles

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carmel O'Brien

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Colin Hunter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Alexander MacKinnon

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Christopher Osborne

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My research primarily focuses on the modelling and interpretation of optical spectral lines from solar flares. I specialise in radiative transfer with time-dependent atomic populations outside of local thermodynamic equilibrium, and also the application of machine learning to invert this problem in observations in a computationally tractable manner.

Dr Craig Stark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Daniel Clarkson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr David Graham

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr David Millar

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I obtained my PhD in Solar Physics in 2023, where I carried out observations of solar flares using cutting edge telescopes. After a short post-doc in this area, I made a shift into my current work which is focused on Physics Education.

My teaching responsibilities are wide-ranging, and include: supervising student projects in astronomy; laboratories; small group supervisions; delivering lectures as part of Exploring the Cosmos on Stars and Stellar Structure. I am passionate about delivering engaging and inclusive teaching, to facilitate an excellent learning environment for students.

Dr Graham Kerr

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I obtained my undergraduate MSci (Hons) degree and then my PhD here at the University of Glasgow, before becoming a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Upon completion of that postdoc position I became a NASA and NSF funded research scientist at the Catholic University of America, but still based at NASA/GSFC as a co-operative scientist.

In January 2026 I was very pleased to return to the University of Glasgow as a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group.

Dr Hugh Hudson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Iain Hannah

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I am a Senior Lecturer, and former Royal Society University Research Fellow, and my research is focused on the physical processes behind the emission we observe in solar flares (or explosive bursts) in the Sun’s atmosphere. I study this primarily through multi-wavelength observations combined with theory and numerical simulations.

I am particularly interested in small active region flares (microflares and smaller) and also quiet sun emission. I have studied these with the solar X-ray telescope RHESSI, STIX on Solar Orbiter, and with the astrophysics X-ray telescope NuSTAR probing the emission from these weak events. My overview of these solar NuSTAR observations is available on GitHub Pages.

Dr Luis Teodoro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Matthew Swayne

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My main research interest is in exoplanetary science and the overarching hunt for life outside our solar system. As instrumentation has advanced since the discovery of the first exoplanet, we have begun analysing the spectra of exoplanet atmospheres. This allows the detection of different molecular species with the hopeful goal of detecting biomarkers, molecules that could only have been created by life.

Past Work

There is however a long way to go and a lot of legwork to do. My PhD work involved using the ESA’s CHEOPS satellite to measure radii and effective temperatures of low-mass stars in eclipsing binaries. Low-mass stars have become popular targets as exoplanet hosts, but have frequently been observed with radii greater than those theoretical models predict for their particular mass, dubbed ‘radius inflation’. If the star is measured wrong, then so will be the inferred properties of the planet orbiting it! Using CHEOPS I observed a sample of 23 low-mass stars, testing for inflation and exploring potential trends behind this radius inflation problem.

Dr Nicolas Labrosse

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I received my PhD from the Université Paris-Sud with a thesis on the modelling of the helium spectrum in solar prominences carried out at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale in Orsay, France, under the supervision of Pierre Gouttebroze. I then moved to Aberystwyth University (Wales) to continue as a postdoctoral researcher in the Solar System Physics group. I joined the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Glasgow in 2007.

Dr Norman Gray

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Sargam Mulay

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Biography

Dr. Sargam Mulay obtained a Ph.D. in Solar Physics from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2018. She had an opportunity to work with Dr. Helen Mason and Dr. Giulio Del Zanna on the topic of solar active region jets. After completing PhD, she joined as a postdoc at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, India. She worked with Prof. Durgesh Tripathi for 1.5 years on sigmoid observations. Since 2019, she is a research assistant with Prof. Lyndsay Fletcher at the University of Glasgow, UK and she is working on spectroscopic observations of solar flares.

Esther Medina

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Francoise Osborne

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Miguel Rojas-Quesada

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nataliá Bajnoková

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nawal Alanazi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Professor Bonnie Steves

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Professor Declan Diver

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My research interest is in the physics of plasmas, particularly theory and numerical simulations of fluid and kinetic plasmas, and imperfectly ionised low-temperature technological plasmas.

Specific topics of interest:

LOW TEMPERATURE PLASMAS: electron avalanches, ionization waves, metastable excitation, streamer formation, surface modification;
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE PLASMAS: dielectric barrier discharges in air, sprites and energetic particle beam formation above thunderclouds via atmospheric electrostatics;
PLASMAS AND DUST: charging and growth of dust particles in plasmas, including aerosols (liquid droplets), and modification of ambient neutral gas by grain discharges and/or surface catalysis via electron-moderated plasma chemistry.
FLUID PLASMAS: MHD plasma - neutral gas momentum coupling, magnetic evolution in cosmological plasmas Ferrofluids: suspension and control of ferrofluid droplets against gravity.
SOLAR PLASMAS: solar surface flows and the interaction with magnetic elements; ionising flows and critical ionization speeds.
RELATIVISTIC PLASMAS: pair plasma kinetic theory, including Bernstein mode analysis and relativistic Landau damping; radiation coupling to, and damping of, electrostatic oscillations and waves in pulsar atmospheres;

Professor Eduard Kontar

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Eduard Kontar is Professor of Astrophysics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, UK. His research is in solar and space physics covering solar flare energetic particle acceleration and propagation, plasma kinetic theory, solar radio and X-ray Astronomy, radio and X-ray emission mechanisms, inverse theory, and the development and application of new methods of X-ray and radio data analysis techniques.

Professor Graham Woan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My research interest is in gravitational wave data analysis and Bayesian methods. The astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation. Radio astronomy, in particular propagation at long wavelengths, including interplanetary scintillation and space-based radio astronomy. Development of the Square Kilometre Array and LOFAR.

Professor Lyndsay Fletcher

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My research interests are in solar flare and coronal physics, and include: flares in the chromosphere, flare and active region magnetic field structure, analysis of imaging and spectral data from solar space missions and numerical simulation of fast particle transport in magnetized plasmas, and flare and active region magnetic field structure.

Professor Martin Hendry

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gravitational-wave and multi-messenger astronomy and cosmology; statistical analysis of galaxy redshift and redshift-distance surveys; Bayesian inference and non-parametric statistical methods; Gravitational lensing and micro-lensing; public outreach and public engagement in science.

Samantha Cook

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yong Zhang

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000