Who we are, and the research we are working on
Using supernovae to understand the fate of the Universe
Prof. Mark Sullivan
I am primarily interested in supernova cosmology (measuring the properties of dark energy) and supernova physics (understanding how stars blow up). I am involved in the PESSTO survey, the Dark Energy Survey, the Palomar Transient Factory, and the CFHT Legacy Survey (SNLS).
Dr. Philip Wiseman
Joined 2017
My expertise lies in utilising the host galaxies of supernovae and other transients to discover more about the explosions themselves. I have created a very deep set of images based on data from the Dark Energy Survey. This catalogue is being used to investigate the host galaxy properties of Type Ia Supernovae (see Lisa’s work) as well as more exotic objects, such as Rapidly Evolving Transients. I am passionate about diversity, I chair of the Astronomy Group Diversity Working Group and sit on the Physics and Astronomy ED&I committee.
Dr. Chris Frohmaier
Joined 2013-2017, 2020-
I am the LSST:UK Senior Research Fellow working within the Time-Domain Extragalactic Survey (TiDES). I lead the survey strategy and simulations for TiDES to maximise the number of supernovae, supernova host-galaxies, and AGN we will observe. TiDES will feed from the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) to collect the largest ever spectroscopic sample of SNe and their hosts. We will use these data to make the most precise measurement of the dark energy equation-of-state to-date.
Lisa Kelsey
Started 2017
My research primarily focuses on the host galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae in order to determine how the observed properties of the supernova are affected by the physical parameters of the host. Using a large sample of supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey, I compare local environmental properties within a fixed location around the supernova explosion sites with global host galaxy properties in order to test standardisation parameters, and gain insight into potential causes of the residual dispersion in Type Ia luminosities.
Tomás Müller Bravo
Started 2017
I am interested in Type Ia supernovae as distance indicators, the physics of Type II supernovae (like the explosion mechanism), and on other types of supernovae in general (e.g., core-collapse, superluminous). My interests also lie in data science (e.g. deep learning) and coding in Python. I am an active member of ePESSTO+ where I am incharge of the data-reduction pipeline. My current work focuses on PISCOLA, a data-driven SNIa fitting code and on the light curve analysis to find an alternative parameterisation to improve the precision in distance measurements.
Marcus Toy
Started 2020
I'm currently investigating the differences in optical properties of supernovae hosted within galaxy clusters compared to those hosted within the field. I'm also looking at any differences in their host properties, as this may give better insight as to the underlying cause of any optical differences.
Zoe Zontou
Started 2020
I am looking at supernovae in the faintest and lowest metallicity host galaxies. I have been using data from the Dark Energy Survey to create and look at Hubble Diagram residuals and determine the values for the nuisance parameters in an assumed flat LambdaCDM universe. I am currently looking at the host galaxy masses of the SNe to determine whether there is possibly any correlation between the Hubble residuals and the host galaxies; I will also focus on SNe within the DES X3 field to hopefully discover any missing information about their host galaxies.
Dr. Mat Smith
Postdoctoral Researcher 2014-2020
Postdoctoral Researcher, CNRS/IN2P3 University of Lyon
Dr. Claudia Gutiérrez
Postdoctoral Researcher 2017-2020
FINCA Fellow, University of Turku
Dr. Miika Pursiainen
PhD Student 2016-2020
Postdoctoral Researcher, DTU Space Copenhagen
Dr. Mike Childress
Faculty 2015-2020
Teacher
Dr. Charlotte Angus
Postdoctoral Researcher 2017-2020
DARK Research Fellow, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
Dr. Cosimo Inserra
Research Fellow 2017-2020
Lecturer, Cardiff University
Dr. Szymon Prajs
PhD Student 2014-2018
Data Scientist, Vocalink
Dr. Rob Firth
Postdoctoral Research Fellow 2016-2017
PhD Student 2012-2016
Data Scientist, STFC
Dr. Chris Frohmaier
PhD Student 2013-2017
Data Science Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ICG, University of Portsmouth
Dr. Georgios Dimitriadis
PhD Student 2013-2017
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California
Dr. Regis Cartier
Postdoctoral Researcher 2015-2017
Support Astronomer/Fellow, CTIO
Dr. Chris D'Andrea
Postdoctoral Research Fellow 2015-2016
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Pennsylvania