DOCSLIB.ORG

Physics and Astronomy ANNUAL REVIEW 2013–14 UCL DEPARTMENT of PHYSICS and ASTRONOMY

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Physics and Astronomy ANNUAL REVIEW 2013–14 UCL DEPARTMENT of PHYSICS and ASTRONOMY Physics and Astronomy ANNUAL REVIEW 2013–14 UCL DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY ANNUAL REVIEW 2014–15 1 WELCOME Physics and Astronomy ANNUAL REVIEW 2013–14 Contents Welcome 1 WELCOME The year 2014 ended with the The tragic death of Bruce Swinyard 2 COMMUNITY FOCUS announcement of the Research in May 2015 was a great loss, and Excellence Framework results, an our thoughts are with his family. A full 3 Teaching Lowdown important exercise in which all UK obituary appears on page 13. universities are assessed on their 4 Student Accolades research activities, and on which Several members of the department 6 Students in Action funding allocations are then based. received prizes in 2014: Benjamin The Department formed the bulk of Joachimi and Ofer Lahav won awards 8 Career Profile UCL’s ‘Physics’ submission, with major from the Royal Astronomical society, contributions also from our colleagues in 9 Alumni Matters as did the Herschel and Cassini teams the London Centre for Nanotechnology which have several UCL members. 10 Science in Action and in the Mullard Space Science David Walker won the IoP Optics and Laboratory. 11 ACADEMIC SHOWCASE Photonics prize, Angela Occhiogrosso and Jennifer Chan won the faculty 12 Staff News postgraduate research and taught 13 Obituary course prizes, respectively. Steve …the department is Fossey won the UCL Communications 14 Staff Accolades “ and Culture award (remember the 15 Portrait of… strong and confdent. supernova discovery in Messier 82 from We will meet these the last review!). Matthew Wing won 16 Reserch Degrees the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research challenges together, and Award from the Humboldt Foundation, 17 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT continue to prosper. Gerhard Materlik won the IoP 18 Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (CMMP) ” Glazebrook medal, and Ian Robinson Another success, prepared in 2014 but won the Aminoff Prize. 20 Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Positron Physics (AMOPP) announced in February 2015, was our receipt of the Institute of Physics Juno 22 High Energy Physics (HEP) We are surrounded by major estates It is possible to make all kinds of different (and subsequently Athena Swan) award. works, in the Physics Yard and the 24 Astrophysics (Astro) league tables from the results, but the These schemes are aimed at addressing Kathleen Lonsdale Building; the ones that count most are those which the systematic gender imbalance in 26 Biological Physics (BioP) astrophysics group are currently correlate closely with the funding. On physics, which is a very important issue working in temporary accommodation 28 RESEARCH STATISTICS all of these, UCL Physics was in the for the field. However, I found the lessons in Hampstead Road. The financial top five nationally, and on my favourite they teach about transparency and environment in UCL is also challenging 33 STAFF SNAPSHOT – “research intensity”, or average grade clarity of organisation, and improving the at present, as the university tries to per academic – we were second (to working environment for all, very generally build up a sustainable surplus to Cambridge, so well done them too). applicable. I believe our department reinvest in the future. However, the These results are of course based will be fairer, more pleasant and more department is strong and confident. Cover image: primarily on the great research being successful as a result, to the benefit of all We will meet these challenges together, The ANITA-3 experiment, being launched in Antarctica. carried out in the department, and of us. Winning recognition for our efforts Credit: Brian Hill (University of Hawaii-Manoa) and continue to prosper. you will find many examples of that is nice, but it the process continues and Image page 2: throughout the review. there is still much work to be done. Credit: UCL Media Services. Image page 5: Credit: Twinkle Consortium Image page 11: Credit: Oli Usher Image page 17: Credit: James Millen Image page 28: Credit: Andrew Pontzen and Fabio Governato Professor Jonathan Butterworth Head of Department Review edited by Olli Usher, [email protected] Design © UCL Creative Media Services 1 WELCOME Teaching Headline Lowdown Research Intake Quantum mechanics explains efficiency of photosynthesis Certificate in Astronomy: 23 MSc/PgDip: 19 Light-gathering chromophores in plant cells transfer energy by taking advantage of molecular vibrations BSc/MSci: 136 MRes: 10 whose physical descriptions have no equivalents in classical physics, according to research by physicists in UCL’s AMOPP group. PhD: 54 Molecular vibrations are periodic motions of the atoms in a molecule. When the energy of a collective vibration of two chromophores matches Awards the energy difference between the electronic transitions of these chromophores a resonance Bachelor of Science (BSc) Master in Science (MSci) occurs and efficient energy exchange between 20 40 19 40 electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom takes 18 35 place. 16 30 14 16 Providing that the energy associated to the 12 25 12 vibration is higher than the temperature scale, 10 20 8 19 only a discrete unit or quantum of energy is 15 6 exchanged. Consequently, as energy is transferred 10 4 from one chromophore to the other, the collective 5 2 vibration displays properties that have no classical 2 2 0 0 0 1 2i 2ii 3 1 2i 2ii 3 counterpart. The team found the signature of non-classicality Master of Science (MSc) Postgraduate Certificate in Astronomy is given by a negative joint probability of finding Diploma (PgDip) the chromophores with certain relative positions 6 6 6 6 6 and momenta, something impossible in classical 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 physics. 4 3 3 3 Published by E. O’Reilly and A. Olaya-Castro, 2 2 2 2 2 Non-classicality of the molecular vibrations assisting 1 1 1 1 exciton energy transfer at room temperature. 0 0 0 Distinction Merit Pass Pass Distinction Pass Nature Communications, 5 (2014) Training the next generation of physics teachers An important development for the Department’s teaching programme has been a new collaboration with the Institute of Education (IOE) to setup a Physics (BSc) plus Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) degree. All BSc students in our Department (including Physics, Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics) will from 2016/17 be able to opt-in for the QTS pathway during Year 3 of their BSc, and spend an extra year on the IOE run QTS qualification. As a taster of physics education and teaching, a 5-day summer experience will be open to all Year 1 and Year 2 students in June/July 2016, at the IOE and with days in a partnership secondary school. The UCL Physics plus QTS degree will be supported by bursaries and other maintenance allowances. We anticipate that this exciting new opportunity will lead to several students taking up careers as physics teachers in school Image credit: Thangaraj Kumaravel each year. Community Focus By Raman Prinja 2 3 ACADEMIC SHOWCASE COMMUNITY FOCUS Physics and Astronomy ANNUAL REVIEW 2013–14 Student Accolades Undergraduate Awards Best Performance Prize Postgraduate Awards Twinkle: a new mission to study exoplanets Third year Astrophysics Departmental Awards Felix Priestley Harrie Massey Prize Best overall MSc student (Joint Award) A new satellite for observing extrasolar planets could be in orbit Oliver Lodge Prize Sessional Prize for Merit Jens Tiebert & Lerh Feng Low within four years, under plans drawn up by UCL and Surrey Satellite Best performance first year physics First or Second year Jakub Mrozek Luke Yeo Carey Foster Prize Technology Limited (SSTL). The Twinkle satellite, pictured below, will Outstanding postgraduate physics Halley Prize observe the light of distant stars with planets orbiting them. Sessional Prize for Merit research in AMOPP Best performance first year astronomy Third year Hugh Price Anusha Gupta As a planet passes between the star and Twinkle’s telescope, a small Mitchell Watts HEP Prize amount of the light passes through its atmosphere, imprinting on it C.A.R. Tayler Prize Burhop Prize Outstanding postgraduate physics the chemical signature of its atmosphere. This technique has been Best performance in Communication Skills Best performance fourth year Physics research in HEP (Joint Award) (based on aggregate of first and used by Hubble to analyse the atmospheres of a handful of Stefan Blesneag James Mott, Rebecca Chislett second year marks) exoplanets, but the Twinkle team hopes to probe at least 100 during and Luke Lambourne Kate Macleod Herschel Prize the spacecraft’s mission. Best performance fourth year Astrophysics Marshall Stoneham Prize Wood Prize Sandor Kruk Outstanding postgraduate physics Giovanna Tinetti is the lead scientist in a consortium of UK institutes Best performance second year physics research in CMMP (Joint Award) Alan Suganuma who will construct Twinkle’s scientifc instrumentation, a highly Brian Duff Memorial Prize Cristina Blanco Andujar Best fourth year project precise infrared spectrometer which can tease out the faint signature Huggins Prize and Szymon Daraszewicz Anita Subbaraj of the planetary atmospheres from the starlight. Best performance second year astronomy Jon Darius Memorial Prize Claudio Arena William Bragg Prize Outstanding postgraduate physics Best overall undergraduate David Pointer Prize research in Astrophysics Harapan Ong Most improved performance first Roser Juanola-Parramon and second year Tessella Prize for Software Christopher Skinner Prize Adam Suhaj Best use of software in final year projects Outstanding postgraduate physics Theo Le Bret Sydney Corrigan Prize research in Astronomy Best
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Javier Peralta Calvillo Generated From: Editor CVN De FECYT Date of Document: 24/01/2021 V 1.4.3 4154B7e2be6a86b67f637261e4ad3d11
    Javier Peralta Calvillo Generated from: Editor CVN de FECYT Date of document: 24/01/2021 v 1.4.3 4154b7e2be6a86b67f637261e4ad3d11 This electronic file (PDF) has embedded CVN technology (CVN-XML). The CVN technology of this file allows you to export and import curricular data from and to any compatible data base. List of adapted databases available at: http://cvn.fecyt.es/ 4154b7e2be6a86b67f637261e4ad3d11 General quality indicators of scientific research This section describes briefly the main quality indicators of scientific production (periods of research activity, experience in supervising doctoral theses, total citations, articles in journals of the first quartile, H index...). It also includes other important aspects or peculiarities. My name is Javier Peralta and I was born in Algeciras (1979, Spain). I graduated in Physics at the University of La Laguna (Spain) in 2003, specializing in the fields of Astrophysics and Applied Physics. In 2009, I got an European PhD degree in Physics at the University of the Basque Country (Spain) with the highest qualification ("Cum Laude") . My PhD research, supervised by Professors Agustín Sánchez-Lavega and Ricardo Hueso, focused on the atmospheric dynamics of the planet Venus using data from the space missions Galileo and Venus Express. As a result, 6 articles were published in international peer review journals (4 of them as first author) along with more than 80 citations which allowed to be awarded in 2012 with the “Extraordinary Prize of Doctorate” granted by the University of the Basque Country. After my PhD, I spent the last 10 years (2009-2019) working in different research institutions as postdoctoral researcher: 2 years at IAA/CSIC in Granada (Spain), 3 years at the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon (CAAUL/OAL, Portugal) and 5 years at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan (ISAS/JAXA), funded by JAXA's International Top Young Fellowship (ITYF).
    [Show full text]
  • Laboratory Astrophysics Is the Rosetta Stone That Symposium Enables Astronomers to Understand and Interpret the Distant Cosmos
    IAU Symposium IAU IAU Symposium Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Laboratory astrophysics is the Rosetta Stone that Symposium enables astronomers to understand and interpret the distant cosmos. It provides the tools to interpret and 350 guide astronomical observations and delivers the numbers needed to quantitatively model the processes 350 taking place in space, providing a bridge between 350 Laboratory 14-19 April 2019 observers and modelers. IAU Symposium 350 was 14-19 April 2019 Cambridge, United Kingdom organized by the International Astronomical Union's Cambridge, United Kingdom Laboratory Astrophysics Commission (B5), and was the Interpretation Observations to From Astrophysics: rst topical symposium on laboratory astrophysics Laboratory sponsored by the IAU. Active researchers in observational astronomy, space missions, experimental From Observations Astrophysics: and theoretical laboratory astrophysics, and Laboratory Astrophysics: From Observations astrochemistry discuss the topics and challenges facing astronomy today. Five major topics are covered, to Interpretation to Interpretation spanning from star- and planet-formation through stellar populations to extragalactic chemistry and dark matter. Within each topic, the main themes of laboratory studies, astronomical observations, and theoretical modeling are explored, demonstrating the breadth and the plurality of disciplines engaged in the growing eld of laboratory astrophysics. Edited by Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Salama and Linnartz Farid Salama Editor in Chief: Professor Maria Teresa Lago This series contains the proceedings of major scienti c Harold Linnartz meetings held by the International Astronomical Union. Each volume contains a series of articles on a topic of current interest in astronomy, giving a timely overview of research in the eld. With contributions by leading scientists, these books are at a level suitable for research astronomers and graduate students.
    [Show full text]
  • RADIAL VELOCITIES in the ZODIACAL DUST CLOUD
    A SURVEY OF RADIAL VELOCITIES in the ZODIACAL DUST CLOUD Brian Harold May Astrophysics Group Department of Physics Imperial College London Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy to Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine London · 2007 · 2 Abstract This thesis documents the building of a pressure-scanned Fabry-Perot Spectrometer, equipped with a photomultiplier and pulse-counting electronics, and its deployment at the Observatorio del Teide at Izaña in Tenerife, at an altitude of 7,700 feet (2567 m), for the purpose of recording high-resolution spectra of the Zodiacal Light. The aim was to achieve the first systematic mapping of the MgI absorption line in the Night Sky, as a function of position in heliocentric coordinates, covering especially the plane of the ecliptic, for a wide variety of elongations from the Sun. More than 250 scans of both morning and evening Zodiacal Light were obtained, in two observing periods – September-October 1971, and April 1972. The scans, as expected, showed profiles modified by components variously Doppler-shifted with respect to the unshifted shape seen in daylight. Unexpectedly, MgI emission was also discovered. These observations covered for the first time a span of elongations from 25º East, through 180º (the Gegenschein), to 27º West, and recorded average shifts of up to six tenths of an angstrom, corresponding to a maximum radial velocity relative to the Earth of about 40 km/s. The set of spectra obtained is in this thesis compared with predictions made from a number of different models of a dust cloud, assuming various distributions of dust density as a function of position and particle size, and differing assumptions about their speed and direction.
    [Show full text]
  • Panoptes, a Project Building Tool for Citizen Science
    Panoptes, a Project Building Tool for Citizen Science Alex Bowyer Chris Lintott Greg Hines Campbell Allen Ed Paget [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Zooniverse / Zooniverse / Zooniverse / Zooniverse / Zooniverse / University of Oxford University of Oxford University of Oxford University of Oxford Adler Planetarium Abstract and supporting projects from ecology to planetary science2. An early test project, Snapshot Supernova(Campbell and et. We will demonstrate the newly deployed Panoptes sys- al. 2015), showed that the system was able to cope with large tem for building citizen science projects which involve spikes in traffic, receiving more than a million classifications the public in the crowdsourced analysis of images. Panoptes supports projects built by the Zooniverse, the in under twenty minutes. world’s most successful collection of such projects, and Unlike previous crowdsourcing platforms, Panoptes pro- allows end users - typically scientists and researchers duces more than a list of raw classifications for project sci- with large data sets - to construct advanced classifica- entists. Standard algorithms (e.g (Hines and et. al. 2015)) ag- tion workflows using simple, browser based tools. A gregate individual users’ input into combined results. These particular strength of Panoptes is its ability to support algorithms can be used to implement complex retirement complex retirement and aggregation tools and proce- rules and task assignment, increasing the efficiency of clas- dures, as well as a mechanism for sending notifications sification. As an example of this kind of more advanced task to users as they classify. It thus provides a valuable 3 testbed for those wishing to build their own projects for assignment, we have integrated the SWAPR code devel- the purposes of investigating the behaviour of human- oped by the SpaceWarps ((et.
    [Show full text]
  • Refereed Publications That Name
    59 Refereed Publications Since 2011 with Named Co-Authors who are NASA Citizen Scientists Compiled by Marc Kuchner February 2021 Authors in bold are citizen scientists. Aurorasaurus Semeter, J., Hunnekuhl, M., MacDonald, E., Hirsch, M., Zeller, N., Chernenkoff, A., & Wang, J. (2020). The mysterious green streaks below STEVE. AGU Advances, 1, e2020AV000183. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020AV000183 Hunnekuhl, M., & MacDonald, E. (2020). Early ground‐based work by auroral pioneer Carl Størmer on the high‐altitude detached subauroral arcs now known as “STEVE”. Space Weather, 18, e2019SW002384. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019SW002384 S. B. Mende. B. J. Harding, & C. Turner. “Subauroral Green STEVE Arcs: Evidence for Low- Energy Excitation” Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 46, Issue 24, Pages 14256-14262 (2019) http://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086145 S. B. Mende. & C. Turner. “Color Ratios of Subauroral (STEVE) Arcs” Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics),Volume 124, Issue 7, Pages 5945-5955 (2019) http://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA026851 Y. Nishimura, Y., B, Gallardo-Lacourt, B., Y, Zou, E. Mishin, D.J. Knudsen, E. F. Donovan, V. Angelopoulos, R. Raybell, “Magnetospheric Signatures of STEVE: Implications for the Magnetospheric Energy Source and Interhemispheric Conjugacy” Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 46, Issue 11, Pages 5637-5644 (2019) Elizabeth A. MacDonald, Eric Donovan, Yukitoshi Nishimura, Nathan A. Case, D. Megan Gillies, Bea Gallardo-Lacourt, William E. Archer, Emma L. Spanswick, Notanee Bourassa, Martin Connors, Matthew Heavner, Brian Jackel, Burcu Kosar, David J. Knudsen, Chris Ratzlaff and Ian Schofield, “New science in plain sight: Citizen scientists lead to the discovery of optical structure in the upper atmosphere” Science Advances, vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Future Directions for Citizen Science and Public Policy
    FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR CITIZEN SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY Edited by Katie Cohen and Robert Doubleday Centre for Science and Policy June 2021 FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR CITIZEN SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY Edited by Katie Cohen and Robert Doubleday Centre for Science and Policy Future directions for citizen science and public policy Open access. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC BY- NC 4.0) licence. You are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material, under the following terms: you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. To view the full licence, visit: www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode The Centre for Science and Policy gratefully acknowledges the work of Creative Commons in inspiring our approach to copyright. To find out more go to:www.creativecommons.org The Centre for Science and Policy was set up at the University of Cambridge in 2009 with the mission to improve public policy through the more effective use of evidence and expertise. CSaP does this by creating opportunities for public policy professionals and academics to learn from each other. CSaP has a unique network of over 450 Policy Fellows and 1,750 experts contributing to more dynamic and diverse scientific input to the most pressing public policy challenges.
    [Show full text]
  • FINESSE and ARIEL + CASE: Dedicated Transit Spectroscopy Missions for the Post-TESS Era
    FINESSE and ARIEL + CASE: Dedicated Transit Spectroscopy Missions for the Post-TESS Era Fast Infrared Exoplanet FINESSE Spectroscopy Survey Explorer Exploring the Diversity of New Worlds Around Other Stars Origins | Climate | Discovery Jacob Bean (University of Chicago) Presented on behalf of the FINESSE/CASE science team: Mark Swain (PI), Nicholas Cowan, Jonathan Fortney, Caitlin Griffith, Tiffany Kataria, Eliza Kempton, Laura Kreidberg, David Latham, Michael Line, Suvrath Mahadevan, Jorge Melendez, Julianne Moses, Vivien Parmentier, Gael Roudier, Evgenya Shkolnik, Adam Showman, Kevin Stevenson, Yuk Yung, & Robert Zellem Fast Infrared Exoplanet FINESSE Spectroscopy Survey Explorer Exploring the Diversity of New Worlds Around Other Stars **Candidate NASA MIDEX mission for launch in 2023** Objectives FINESSE will test theories of planetary origins and climate, transform comparative planetology, and open up exoplanet discovery space by performing a comprehensive, statistical, and uniform survey of transiting exoplanet atmospheres. Strategy • Transmission spectroscopy of 500 planets: Mp = few – 1,000 MEarth • Phase-resolved emission spectroscopy of a subset of 100 planets: Teq > 700 K • Focus on synergistic science with JWST: homogeneous survey, broader context, population properties, and bright stars Hardware • 75 cm aluminum Cassegrain telescope at L2 • 0.5 – 5.0 μm high-throughput prism spectrometer with R > 80 • Single HgCdTe detector with JWST heritage for science and guiding Origins | Climate | Discovery Advantages of Fast Infrared
    [Show full text]
  • Brian May Plays “God Save the Queen” from the Roof of Buckingham Palace to Commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’S Golden Jubilee on June 3, 2002
    Exclusive interview Brian May plays “God Save the Queen” from the roof of Buckingham Palace to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee on June 3, 2002. © 2002 Arthur Edwards 26 Astronomy • September 2012 As a teenager, Brian Harold May was shy, uncer- tain, insecure. “I used to think, ‘My God, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to wear, I don’t know who I am,’ ” he says. For a kid who didn’t know who he was or what he wanted, he had quite a future in store. Deep, abiding interests and worldwide success A life in would come on several levels, from both science and music. Like all teenagers beset by angst, it was just a matter of sorting it all out. Skiffle, stars, and 3-D A postwar baby, Brian May was born July 19, 1947. In his boyhood home on Walsham Road in Feltham on the western side of Lon- science don, England, he was an only child, the offspring of Harold, an electronics engineer and senior draftsman at the Ministry of Avia- tion, and Ruth. (Harold had served as a radio operator during World War II.) The seeds for all of May’s enduring interests came early: At age 6, Brian learned a few chords on the ukulele from his father, who was a music enthusiast. A year later, he awoke one morning to find a “Spanish guitar hanging off the end of my bed.” and At age 7, he commenced piano lessons and began playing guitar with enthusiasm, and his father’s engineering genius came in handy to fix up and repair equipment, as the family had what some called a modest income.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:2010.15996V1 [Astro-Ph.IM] 29 Oct 2020 Keywords: ARIEL, Exoplanets, Transit Photometry, Light Curves, Stellar Spots, Machine Learning
    Draft version November 2, 2020 Typeset using LATEX default style in AASTeX63 Lessons Learned from the 1st ARIEL Machine Learning Challenge: Correcting Transiting Exoplanet Light Curves for Stellar Spots Nikolaos Nikolaou ,1 Ingo P. Waldmann ,1 Angelos Tsiaras ,1 Mario Morvan ,1 Billy Edwards ,1 Kai Hou Yip ,1 Giovanna Tinetti ,1 Subhajit Sarkar,2 James M. Dawson,2 Vadim Borisov,3 Gjergji Kasneci,3 Matej Petkovic,´ 4 Tomaˇz Stepiˇsnik,4 Tarek Al-Ubaidi,5, 6 Rachel Louise Bailey ,6 Michael Granitzer ,7 Sahib Julka ,7 Roman Kern,8 Patrick Ofner ,8 Stefan Wagner,9 Lukas Heppe ,10 Mirko Bunse ,10 and Katharina Morik 10 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK 2School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK 3Department of Computer Science, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany 4Joˇzef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia 5DCCS, Austria 6Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria 7Chair of Data Science, University of Passau, Germany 8Know-Center GmbH - Research Center for Data-Driven Business & Big Data Analytics, Austria 9Commission for Astronomy, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, Austria 10Artificial Intelligence Group, TU Dortmund University, Germany Submitted to ApJ ABSTRACT The last decade has witnessed a rapid growth of the field of exoplanet discovery and characterisation. However, several big challenges remain, many of which could be addressed using machine learning methodology. For instance, the most prolific method for detecting exoplanets and inferring several of their characteristics, transit photometry, is very sensitive to the presence of stellar spots. The current practice in the literature is to identify the effects of spots visually and correct for them manually or discard the affected data.
    [Show full text]
  • ADSUG Charter, Membership, Terms
    ADS Users Group Welcome Kathy Flanagan STScI ADS Users Group Meeting - 11/2/2017 Membership ● Kathy Flanagan (chair) ● Carrie Anderson (NASA/GSFC Astrochemistry Lab) ● Roc Cutri (IPAC, Caltech) ● Ruth Kneale (NSO) / Line Nybakk Akerholt (U. Oslo) ● Chris Lintott (U. Oxford / Zooniverse) ● Sandy Payette / Erick Peirson (Cornell U. Library, arXiv) ● Josh Peek (STScI) ● Matthew Turk (iSchool at UIUC) ● Jake VanderPlas (U. Washington eScience Institute) ● Michael Wise (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy) New Members Line Nybakk Akerholt, head Librarian, Science Library, U. Oslo. Line holds a MS in Library and Information Science from U. Oslo, where she is responsible for the library's collections in astronomy and astrophysics, and the Science library's collection in library and information science. Erick Peirson, lead system architect, arXiv-NG. Erick holds a PhD from Arizona State University (ASU) where he was a founding member of the Digital Innovation Group that explores the intersections of science and society in the digital age. 2015 SR Recommendation “The panel recommends that ADS sets up a user group, comprised of a representative user community including a member of the NASA archive community that provides guidance to ADS on: 1. Annual operations/development plans 2. Prioritization of new tools and infrastructure improvements 3. Applicability to science 4. Access to data” Charter The ADS Users Group (ADSUG) advises the ADS on the operations of the project, and recommends changes and improvements to both its services and procedures in order to maximize the scientific productivity of the community it serves. The ADSUG will advocate for the user community and provide suggestions regarding content curation, technical infrastructure, management, and priority setting.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Review 2011/12
    UCL DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY 2011–12 ANNUAL REVIEW PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY ANNUAL REVIEW 2011–12 Contents Welcome It is an honour to write this WELCOME 1 introduction standing, to misquote Newton, on the shoulders of giants. COMMUNITY FOCUS 3 Jonathan Tennyson finished his Teaching Lowdown 4 tenure as Head of Department in September 2011 and so the majority Student Accolades 4 of the material contained in this Outstanding PhD Theses Published 5 Review records achievements under his leadership. In addition, Tony Career Profiles 6 Harker is currently acting as Head of Science in Action 8 Department in many matters and will continue to do so until October 2012. Alumni Matters 9 This is due to my on-going commitments with the ATLAS experiment on the ACADEMIC SHOWCASE 11 Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Staff Accolades 12 I currently spend a large amount of my time in Geneva and I am very grateful Academic Appointments 14 to both Tony and Jonathan, as well as to other members of staff for helping Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 15 to make this transition a success. In Portrait of Dr Phil Jones 16 particular I would also like to thank Hilary Wigmore as Departmental Manager and Raman Prinja as the new Director of RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT 17 Teaching for their continued support. Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Position Physics (AMOPP) 19 High Energy Physics (HEP) 21 “Success in such long- Condensed Matter and term, high-impact projects Materials Physics (CMMP) 25 requires sustained vision Astrophysics (Astro) 29 and dedicated work by Biological Physics (BioP) 33 excellent scientists over Research Statistics 35 many years.” Staff Snapshot 38 Underpinning this success is the outstanding quality of scientific research and education within the Department.
    [Show full text]
  • The Practical Use of Cosmic Shear As a Probe of Gravity
    The Practical use of Cosmic Shear as a Probe of Gravity Donnacha Kirk Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University College London Department of Physics & Astronomy UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON April 2011 I, Donnacha Kirk, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Specifically: • The work on luminosity functions and red galaxy fractions in section 2.7 was done by Dr. Michael Schneider (then at Durham) as part of our collaboration on the paper Kirk et al. (2010). • The work in chapters 3 & 4 is my contribution to, and will form the substantial part of, papers in preparation with collaborators Prof. Rachel Bean and Istvan Lazslo at Cornell University. The MG effect on the linear growth function was computed by Istvan Lazslo. • The Great08 section of chapter 6 draws on my contributions to the Great08 Handbook (Bridle et al. 2009), Great08 Results Paper (Bridle et al. 2010a) and Great10 Handbook (Kitching et al. 2010). To Mum and Dad, for everything. Boyle. ... an’ it blowed, an’ blowed – blew is the right word, Joxer, but blowed is what the sailors use... Joxer. Aw, it’s a darlin’ word, a daarlin’ word. Boyle. An’, as it blowed an’ blowed, I often looked up at the sky an’ assed meself the question – what is the stars, what is the stars? Voice of Coal Vendor. Any blocks, coal-blocks; blocks, coal-blocks! Joxer. Ah, that’s the question, that’s the question – what is the stars? Boyle.
    [Show full text]