Current Research

Put simply I am studying the possible mechanisms for the formation of galaxies similar to the Milky Way using computer simulations.

I am working with Prof. Jerry Ostriker on simulations involving N-body codes and Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics. The work currently shown on this page is based on simulations performed as part of my PhD thesis with Prof. George Efstathiou. The simulations shown here include a simplistic feedback mechanism and a star formation algorithm.

Our most recent simulation is depicted in the figure and animation below. If you click on the figure you can see the simulation in action. The animation shows the formation and evolution of the galaxy in the simulation. This simulation includes 195,000 dark matter and gas particles, a grand total of 390,000 particles! Our mass resolution is 6x10^6 solar masses and spatial resolution is less than 1 kpc.

The PhD

The title of my PhD thesis was Numerical Simulations of Disc Galaxy Formation.

Anyone interested in the content of this thesis should click on the title above to reveal the contents pages of the thesis. If you would like a copy of the thesis follow this link to download it.

Publications

Talks

For any one interested in my qualifications here is my CV in postscript format,cv.ps, or in pdf cv.pdf, or in LaTeX format,cv.tex .

Astronomy Related Links

Royal Observatory Greenwich

For the compulsory pretty pictures look at Astronomy Picture of the Day