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first, i shall play my pity card: i'm a fan
of blackburn rovers. when fit,
i play footy in several lousy local teams, run, ski, potter in my
garden (i'm allowed - i'm 43!), watch
movies and spend
72/73rds of the year looking forward
to glastonbury.
i was married, quite recently, to a divine mackem lass, on a glorious
stretch of beach in palm cove, queensland, and we have two adorable/demonic
children - one of each.
i study the formation and evolution of galaxies, specialising in
observations at far-IR, submillimetre and radio wavelengths. for most,
this research honeymoon period ends sometime in their mid-to-late
thirties, at which point we're supposed to canter towards retirement,
serve on committees, take on management duties and rue our
citation
statistics
(normalised; first author). i've
managed the latter, at least, because
my hirsch
index lags that of his
smailship by a half a dozen, for which i'd like to blame 5 years
working in the wasteland of symbiotic stars (=> a solitary
contribution to my 62), but the sad fact is that he would beat me into
a cocked hat regardless. i aim to keep it well ahead of my
age. (h/career years since award of PhD = 3.5).
my goals: give my students the same opportunities i had; avoid
transformation into egomaniacal despot, unless i get to wear
appropriate boots.
thus far, i've written or contributed to around
220 refereed
articles. some of these are poor yet heavily cited; some are quite
good and sank without trace. this tells you all you need to know about
science in the new millenium... write MoUs, talk loud, carry a
howitzer. i chose astrophysics partly to avoid the rat race, yet the
way astrophysics is funded/reviewed means that it now mirrors big
business in many ways. you win some, you lose some. it beats flipping
burgers.
my time is split between writing proposals to use or build telescopes
(the day job); analysing data - stuffing raw data into one end of box,
getting pretty pictures out the other side, courtesy of the pixies -
then writing papers (the divine overlap between science and art). what
i do is esoteric by most standards, but normal in astrophysics. i
meddle mainly with faint smudges in far-flung regions of the universe.
the golden rule seems to be that i get interested in things that are
ridiculously difficult to study.
i work at the royal observatory, edinburgh, which is now in the guise
of the ever-threatened uk
astronomy technology centre, arguably the world's leading purveyor
of astronomical instrumentation. i also do a little teaching and
supervising at the institute for
astronomy, university of edinburgh, where i am a visiting
professor.
recent career history: 2007-now, individual merit researcher;
2006-now, visiting
professor, institute for
astronomy, university of edinburgh; 2001-now, project scientist,
uk astronomy technology
centre, royal observatory edinburgh; 1998-2001, pparc advanced
fellow and lecturer, dept of
physics & astronomy at university
college london; 1997-1998, pparc advanced fellow, university of
edinburgh.
\ welcome to my home page. this is used by colleagues looking
for up-to-date information or friends looking to see where i've got to.
good luck...
you can send e-mail to rji at roe.ac.uk
Rob Ivison UK Astronomy Technology Centre Tel. +44 131 668 8361 (direct) Royal Observatory Fax. +44 131 668 8464 Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ
photo credit (top): wayne holland "bizarre cloud over mauna kea".
last updated 28-nov-2009
