Research Overview

I am an observational astronomer, originally working in X-ray astronomy, then moving to optical and infrared follow-up of AGN, followed by studies of galaxies in the far-infrared, and then sub-mm surveys. It seems I have been losing energy with time ! My work has been in the following areas :

The Physics and Phenomenology of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and Quasars

Survey Astronomy, especially the UKIRT Deep Infrared Sky Survey (UKIDSS Project)

E-science and the development of a Virtual Observatory environment (AstroGrid Project)

Observational Cosmology (IRAS galaxies, SCUBA galaxies, large scale structure)

Assorted oddities (e.g. cold dark clouds, chaotic variability)

Here is a collection of some recent conference talks I have given.

Recent Talks

2008-10-08 : UKIDSS and the VO (4.6MB)
Colloquium given at Caltech, Pasadena, USA.

2008-06-12 : Why Libraries are too important to be left to Librarians (1.4MB)
Talk given as "tame scientist" to annual conference of Society of College, National, ad University Libraries (SCONUL), Edinburgh.

2008-05-09 : Big Surveys, Big databases " how to avoid drowning in the data deluge (1.4MB)
Talk at RAS Meeting, London.

2008-04-01 : The AstroGrid Desktop Suite : Release 2008 (1.4MB)
Talk at National Astronomy Meeting, Belfast.

2008-01-21 : The Virtual Observatory in action (0.7MB)
Seminar given at Oxford e-Science centre.

2007-12-17 : UKIDSS overview (1.2MB)
This is the introductory review from "Science with UKIDSS", Dec 17-20, workshop at ESO.

2007-07-11 : AGN Unification (1.8MB)
This is an invited review given at "From IRAS to Herschel-Planck", July 9-11, a conference in London to celebrate the 65th birthday of Michael Rowan-Robinson.

2007-06-06 : Misaligned Fuelling and the Unified Scheme(1.0MB)
This is a talk given at "Obscured AGN Across Cosmic Time", 2007 June 5-8, a workshop in Seeon, Bavaria, organised by ESO.

2006-10-03 : Data Access in Physics and Astronomy(0.4MB)
This is an invited talk given at a workshop on "An Information Commons for Science", 2006 October 2-4, Washington DC, organised by Science Commons.

2006-08-22 : Warped Discs and the Unified Scheme(0.8MB)
This is a talk given at IAU Symposium 238 "Black Holes - from Stars to Galaxies", Aug 21-25 2006, part of the IAU General Assembly in Prague, August 2006.

2006-08-17 : The Virtual Observatory : what it is and where it came from(0.8MB)
This is the invited opening review at Special Session 3 "The Virtual Observatory in action: new science, new technology, and next generation facilities I", Aug 17-22 2006, part of the IAU General Assembly in Prague, August 2006.

2006-04-06 : Wide Angle Surveys(3.9MB)
This is an invited plenary review at UK National Astronomy Meeting 2006, April 3-7 2006, Leicester

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