Research |
My research interests involve many topics in galactic and interstellar astrophysics. See the links below for the three main pillars that underpin my research.
I act as supervisor to a number of graduate students in our group. Elizabeth Iles is working on barred galaxies, specifically the difference in bars that form in isolation and those that have been triggered by an interaction. She is making models for the galaxies NGC 4303 (an isolated bar, see the left image below) and NGC 3627 (a tidally triggered bar), looking into differences in their star forming histories across their discs. Veronica Zhang is investigating how different types of spiral arms impact the creation of a cold, dense interstellar medium. There are many different spiral generation mechanisms proposed in the literature, with each one impacts the interstellar medium in subtly different ways (see bottom right, a simulation of arms formed in a non-spherical halo).
See our astrophysics webpage for a full list of the students in our group and their interests.
The barred-spiral galaxy NGC 4303
Spirals in a triaxial dark matter halo
