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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'm married to a divine mackem lass, and we have two adorable/demonic
children - one of each (ambiguity intended).
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 64), 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 more than
260 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.
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, cross-council 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 01-sept-2010
