Employment / Education

2017 - Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter

May 2017 - August 2017 - Lecturer, University of Exeter

2016 - 2017 Senior research fellow / Proleptic senior lecturer, University of Exeter

Feb 2016 - Sep 2016 Career break

2011 - 2016 Research fellow / Proleptic lecturer, University of Exeter

2009 - 2011 Theoretical postdoctoral fellow, MPE (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)

2006 - 2009 Associate Research Fellow, University of Exeter

2003 - 2006 PhD, University of St. Andrews

1999 - 2003 MPhys (Maths & Physics), University of Warwick

Research Interests

  • The formation and properties of molecular clouds

  • Galactic structure

  • Stellar feedback in galaxies

    • Awards/ Grants

    2018 - STFC consolidated grant (Co-I), £1.8 million, PI: Isabelle Baraffe, fraction 20%

    2011 - ERC starting grant (PI), €1.2 million

    2011 - ISM DFG grant (Co-I), €102,000, PI: E. Schinnerer

    2007 - HPC-Europa award

    Teaching and university duties

    Module lead for Galaxies and High Energy Astrophysics (PHY3066)

    2nd year tutor

    Director of PhD admissions for astrophysics

    Member of Physics Inclusivity group

    Conference organisation

    SOC member for ‘Galactic Star Formation with Surveys’, Heidelberg, July 2017

    SOC member for ‘The Physics of the ISM’, Cologne, February 2017

    SOC member for 'Galactic and extragalactic star formation 2014', Marseille, September 2014

    SOC member for NAM session 'Star formation in the ALMA era', July 2013

    SOC member for ‘Regularisation of star formation in molecular gas’, Ringberg, June 2013

    SOC member for ‘IAU Symposium 270: Computational star formation’, Barcelona, May 2010

    LOC member for ‘Puzzles of galactic nuclei’ workshop, MPE, June 2010

    Invited Conference Talks (only accepted talks are shown)

    2018

  • The laws of star formation, Cambridge, July 2018

  • Early Phase of Star Formation 2018, Ringberg, May 2018 (review)

    • 2017

  • Linking Observations and Theory Across the Scales of Star Formation in Galaxies, Sexten, July 2017 (review)

  • Francesco's Legacy: Star formation in space and time, Florence, June 2017

    • 2015

  • EWASS 2015, Tenerife, June 2015 (review)

  • A 3D View on Galaxy Evolution: from Statistics to Physics, MPIA, July 2015 (review)

    • 2014

  • Early Phase of Star Formation 2014, Ringberg, June 2014 (review)

  • Lessons from the Local Group, Seychelles, May 2014

  • Fire Down Below: the Impact of Feedback on Star and Galaxy Formation, Santa Barbara, April 2014

  • The Impact of Galactic Structure on Star Formation, Japan, February 2014 (review)

    • 2013

  • Mind the gap, Cambridge, July 2013

  • Regulation of star formation in molecular gas, Ringberg, June 2013

  • IAU symposium 298, China, May 2013

    • pre 2013

  • Galactic Star Formation, Heidelberg, August 2012 (review)

  • Gas flows in Galaxies, May Symposium, StScI, May 2012

  • 5th Zermatt ISM Symposium, September 2010 (review)

  • IAU Symposium 270: Computational star formation, Barcelona, June 2010 (review)

  • ‘Angular momentum transport in accretion discs’, IoA, September 2009

  • ‘PEARLS 09: Spiral arm substructure in nearby galaxies’, STScI, September 2009

  • 'Next generation of computational models of baryonic physics in galaxy formation: from protostellar cores to disk galaxy formation', Zurich, September 2007

    • Invited Seminars / Colloquia

    UK: Birmingham, Cardiff x2, Durham, Edinburgh x2, Exeter, Hertfordshirex2, Imperial, IoA, Keele, Leeds, Leicester x2, Liverpool John Moores, Manchester, MSSL, Newcastle, Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, Queens University Belfast, St Andrews, Surrey, Sussex

    International: ESO (Garching), ITA (Heidelberg), LMU (Munich), Lund, Monash (Melbourne), MPIA (Heidelberg), MPIfR (Bonn), AIP (Potsdam), CEA Saclay (Paris), Vienna, ITP (Zurich)

    (Note my students and postdocs have also given a number of seminars and contributed talks at conferences which are not included here)

    PhD students supervised

    2012-2014 Alex Pettitt (now assistant professor at Hokkaido)

    2012-2015 Ramon Rey-Raposo (now a postdoc at Surrey)

    2016- Thomas Bending

    Publication record

    Refereed papers:>50   Total citations:>2000

    Outreach

    Cafe Scientifique, Exeter, February 2016

    Talk for Plymouth Astronomical Society, October 2015

    Soapbox Science, Exeter, June 2015

    Talk for Chesham Grammar school, March 2015

    Talk for Callington Community Astronomy Group, March 2015

    Talk for Torbay Astronomical Society, November 2014

    Talk for Swansea Astronomical Society, November 2013

    PUPC lecture, Exeter, July 2013

    Talk for Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Society, November 2012

    Talk for Norman Lockyer Observatory, 2007

    Articles for Astronomy and Geophysics (October 2013), American Scientist (March 2014) and Pour la Science (October 2014)

    Contributions to the Community

    Referee for ApJ, MNRAS, A&A, Science, PRACE, STFC (consolidated grant and Ernest Rutherford fellowships), NASA Astrophysics theory panel, FWO Fellowship scheme (Belgium), NSERC (Canada), DFG (German research funding organisation), and JCMT

    PhD Viva examinations: Leicester (2012), Exeter (2014), Leiden (2015), Cambridge (2017)

    Non-academic achievements

    Becoming a mum!

    I have appeared 4 times on the popular UK quiz show Countdown.

    I completed an ambition to do a parachute jump.