Welcome to my research page.

I am currently a postdoc at the Institute for Cosmology and Gravitation of the University of Portsmouth. In September 2008 I completed my PhD at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh, under the wise supervision of Professor Alan Heavens.

I’m interested in large-scale structure and galaxy evolution, the problem of recovering physical parameters from galaxies’ spectra, SNIa progenitors, the mass assembly in galaxies, as well as non-Gaussianity in the CMB.

If you’re looking for VESPA’s database, please look here.

If you’re looking for LRG colour tracks evolution, please look here.

Last 5 refereed or submitted publications (full list from ADS here - papers not yet public usually available by request) :

1. R. Tojeiro and 21 co-authors, 2012, submitted to MNRAS: “The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measuring structure growth using passive galaxies”
   

2. L. Anderson and the BOSS collaboration, 2012, submitted to MNRAS: “The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: baryon acoustic oscillations in the data release 9 spectroscopic galaxy sample”
   

3. A. Ross et al., 2012, submitted to MNRAS: “The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: analysis of potential systematics”
   

4. B. Reid et al., 2012, submitted to MNRAS: “The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: measurements of the growth of structure and expansion rate at z=0.57 from anisotropic clustering”
   

5. A. Sánchez et al., 2012, submitted to MNRAS: “The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: cosmological implications of the large-scale two-point correlation function”
   

Prizes and awards:

1. Royal Astronomical Society Michael Penston Prize 2008; runner up - for best doctoral thesis in Astronomy or Astrophysics submitted to a UK institution.
   

2. Royal Society of Edinburgh Cormack Postgraduate Prize 2007 - for best paper in Astronomy submitted by a PhD student in Scotland.
   

3. Emerson Prize 2004 - for best in class, MPhys Astrophysics, University of Edinburgh.
   

Last 5 academic talks (longer list here):

1. 21 Mar 2012: Euclid Meeting, London: “Measuring the growth rate using passive galaxies”
   

2. 17 Feb 2012: University of Sussex, Seminar: “Modelling galaxies across cosmic times - successes, limitations and implications to observational cosmology”
   

3. 05 Jan 2012: NYU, BOSS meeting: “Enhanced redshift-space distortions measurements using passive galaxies”
   

4. 28 Sep 2011: Nottingham University, Seminar: “Tracking coeval galaxies across cosmic times.”
   

5. 25 March 2011: BOSS meeting, Cloudcroft, New Mexico: “Identifying coeval galaxies over redshifts and across surveys”
   

Outreach and education work:

I’m heavily involved in outreach and the public communication of science, via public talks, hands-on activities, workshops for schools and teachers and anything else I can think of - get in touch if you think I can help your school or community centre. I’m also an author in the Astronomy blog we are all in the gutter, and I piloted an Astronomy videocast called Our Universe, which sadly I had to let go due to lack of time.

Last 5 public talks or events (longer list here):

1. 14 March 2012: University of Surrey, “Mapping the Universe”
   

2. 14 November 2011: Cafe Scientifique, Isle of Wight: “Mapping the Universe”
   

3. 19 and 20 July 2011: Imperial College London: Exo-planets workshop and guided visit to ROG (STEM World summer schools)
   

4. 4 and 11 July 2011: Springfield Technology College: Faulkes Telescope sessions.
   

5. 10 May 2011: Springfield Technology College: “Comets - snowballs in space”.
   

Collaborators (2 common publications or more, excluding collaboration papers):

Alan Heavens

Will Percival

Ashley J. Ross

David Wake

Raul Jimenez

Michael Strauss

Éric Aubourg

Ben Panter

Stephen Wilkins