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Rob Ivison

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...

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.

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

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