Astrophysics seminars are hybrid and take place every Tuesday at 15:00 in the Blackett Laboratory

Discussion and refreshments follow the seminar at 16:00.

Seminar organiser: Dr Christina Schoettler & Dr Eleni Tsaprazi

*PS there will be no seminar on the 5th March 2024

Astrophysics seminars

Seminars archive (pre 2023-24)

Seminars 2022-23

Summer Term (2022-2023)

25 April                Vardan Elbakyan (Leicester) – Dust dynamics in protoplanetary discs, accretion outbursts on protostars

2 May                  Niall Jeffrey (UCL) – Cosmology, Statistical models

9 May                  Paola Pinilla (MSSL) – Observations of protoplanetary discs

16 May                 Jim Dunlop (Edinburgh) – Extra-galactic astronomy, Cosmology

23 May                 Danielle Leonard (Newcastle) – Weak gravitational lensing & Galaxy clustering

30 May                  TBD

6 June                  Sebastian Marino (Exeter) – Debris discs, Protoplanetary discs

13 June                Sebastiaan Krijt (Exeter) – Early formation of planets, Dust in discs

20 June                Duncan Farrah (Hawaii) – Quasars & Cosmology

27 June                 Matthew Colless (Canberra) – Observational cosmology & Galaxy dynamics

 


 

Spring Term (2022-23)

 

10 January          Kevin Heng (Munich) – Planetary atmospheres

17 January          Matthew Colless (Canberra) – Observational cosmology & galaxy dynamics

24 January          Richard Parker (Sheffield) – Formation & evolution of star clusters

31 January          Heather Cegla (Warwick) – Exoplanets

7 February          Shirley Ho – Machine learning, Dark energy, CMB

14 February       Rescheduled

21 February       Rescheduled

28 February       Rescheduled

14 March            Harry Desmond (Portsmouth) – Cosmology, Statistical methods

21 March            Rescheduled

28 March            Charlie Hoy (Portsmouth) – Gravitational waves


Autumn term (2022-23) 

Oct 11: James Kirk (Imperial) - What can we learn from exoplanet atmospheres and how can we study them?
Oct 18: Marcos Pellejero-Ibanez (DIPC) -Hybrid approaches for structure formation
Oct 25: Oscar Barragan (Oxford) - Detection of planetary signals in cases of extreme stellar activity
Nov 1: Sheona Urquhart (Open University)
Nov 8: Kate Pattle (UCL) - Interstellar Magnetic Fields: From Star Formation to Galaxy Evolution
Nov 15: TBC Nov 22: Hilke Schlichting (UCLA)
Nov 29: TBC
Dec 6: Amy Bonsor (Cambridge)
Dec 13: TBC

Seminars 2021-22

Autumn term (2021-22) 


Oct 13: Rachael Beaton (Princeton University, USA)

Engineering the Cosmological Measurements with Old Stellar Populations


Oct 20: James Owen (Imperial College London)

UV-SCOPE: A NASA MiDEX mission concept to explore exoplanets inthe UV


Oct 27: Matthias Rempel (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, USA)

Flare simulations with the MURaM radiative MHD code


Nov 3: Trent Dupuy (University of Edinburgh) 

Beneath the Surface: Testing Evolutionary Models of Giant Planets and Brown Dwarfs


Nov 10: Rebecca Bowler (University of Oxford)

What bright galaxies can tell us about the first billion years


Nov 17: Amy Steele (McGill University)

Constraining the composition of exo-planetary material around white dwarf stars


Nov 24: Florent Leclercq (Imperial College London)

Bayesian analyses of galaxy surveys


Dec 1: Michael Rowan-Robinson (Imperial College London)

A Search for Planet 9 in the IRAS Data


Dec 8: Daniel Holz (University of Chicago)

Some recent results in gravitational-wave science


Dec 15: Tim Cunningham (University of Warwick)

Convective overshoot in white dwarf stars: insights from 3D radiation hydrodynamics


Winter term (2021-22) 


Jan 26: Glenn Starkman (Case Western Reserve University, USA; visitor at Imperial College London)

Gravitational glint: Detectable gravitational wave tails from stars and compact objects


Feb 2: Claudio Dalla Vecchia (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Spain)

Eagles and Canaries


Feb 9: John Tobin (National Radio Astronomy Obervatory (NRAO), USA)

(General topic: Star formation)


Feb 16: Elisabeth Krause (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, USA) 

Large-Scale Structure Cosmology in the Systematics-Limited Regime


Feb 23: TBD


Mar 2: Manda Banerji-Wright (University of Southampton)

(General topic: Co-evolution of galaxies and super-massive black holes)


Mar 9: Charlotte Mason (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) 

(General topic: Formation and evolution of galaxies in the early universe)

[NOTE special earlier time: 2:45-4:15 pm (2:45-3:15 pm: Speaker/student discussion; 3:15-4:00 pm: Seminar; 4:00-4:15 pm: Coffee)]


Mar 16: Will Hartley (Université de Genève)

(General topic: Dark Energy Survey)


Mar 23: TBD


 Summer term (2021-22) 


May 18: Steve Choi (Cornell University, USA)

Next Generation Cosmology from the Atacama Desert


May 25: Amelie Saintonge (University College London)

From cosmic web to molecular clouds: the multiple scales of galaxy evolution


June 1: Claudia Scoccola (University of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

(General topic: Cosmology)


June 8: Suvodip Mukherjee (Flatiron Institute / Simons Foundation, USA)

(General topic: Cosmology)

June 8: Suvodip Mukherjee (Flatiron Institute / Simons Foundation, USA)

(General topic: Cosmology)


SPECIAL SEMINAR:

June 9, 11am – 12 pm: Stefano Anselmi (University of Padova, Italy)

Are Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations a Dark Energy Probe?

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations are considered one of the most powerful Dark Energy cosmological probes. They are assumed to provide distance measures independent of a specific cosmological model. However, in current measurements, the inference is done assuming parameter values of a fiducial LCDM model and employing prescriptions tested to be unbiased only within some LCDM fiducial cosmologies. Moreover the procedure is plagued by the ambiguity of choosing a specific correlation function model-template to measure cosmological distances. Does this comply with the requirement of model-independent distances useful, for instance, to select cosmological models or characterize tensions? In this talk I will review the subject, answer to compelling questions and explore new promising research directions.


June 15: Giovanni Rosotti (University of Leicester)

(General topic: Protoplanetary Disks)


June 22: NO SEMINAR (1st year ESA talks)


June 29: TBD


 

Seminars 2020-21

Autumn term (2020-21) 


Oct 14: Richard Booth (Imperial College London)

Dust and gas evolution in protoplanetary discs


Oct 21: Matthaus Schulik (Imperial College London) 

Forming gas giant planets in 3D – Current progress and future challanges


Oct 28: Karina Voggel (Strasbourg Observatory)

The Hidden Black Holes in Surviving Nuclear Star Clusters of Accreted Galaxies 


Nov 4: Boris Leistedt (Imperial College London)

Cosmology with galaxy surveys


Nov 11: Ashley Spindler (Univ. of Hertfordshire)

AstroVaDEr – An Unsupervised Approach to Galaxy Classification and Image Synthesis


Nov 18: Selim Hotinli (Imperial College London)

New directions in cosmology: utilising the small-scale signatures in the Universe 


Nov 25: Ansgar Reiners (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)

 M dwarfs, planets, and their atmospheres - results from the CARMENES project


Dec 2: Tana Joseph (University of Amsterdam)

Multi-messenger studies of binary stellar systems with the SKA


Dec 9: Rebecca Nealon (University of Warwick)

Misalignments and shadows in protoplanetary discs


Winter term (2020-21) 


Jan 27: Adélie Gorce (McGill University, Canada)

Cosmological signatures of the Epoch of Reionisation: A statistical approach


Feb 3: Sarah Bosman (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Germany) 

Beyond the Lyman-α forest: Understanding the end stages of Reionisation


Feb 10: Cynthia Chiang (McGill University, Canada)

Illuminating the Dark Universe with Radio Observations 


Feb 17: Marija Jankovic (University of Cambridge)

The inner protoplanetary disc and the formation of super-Earths


Feb 24: Giovanna Tinetti (UCL)

Ariel: enabling planetary science across light-years


Mar 3: NO SEMINAR


Mar 10: Jane Greaves (Cardiff University)

Updates on phosphine on Venus: any prospect for extant life in the clouds?


Mar 17: Jayne Birkby (University of Oxford)

Exoplanet Atmospheres in High Resolution


Mar 24: Barbara Ercolano (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, University Observatory Munich, Germany)

Thermal disc winds and their role in the formation and evolution of planets

 

Spring term (2020-21) 

NOTE: Seminars this term will start at 16:00, and will continue being held remotely via Zoom. 


May 5: Rebecca Smethurst (University of Oxford)

The growth of supermassive black holes in the absence of mergers and the effect on their host galaxies


May 12: Cathie Clarke (University of Cambridge)

Using simulations and observations of protoplanetary discs to understand planetary system formation


May 19: Steven Murray (Arizona State University, USA)

Building Confidence in Next-Generation 21cm Cosmology: A Forward-Model Approach


May 26: Neal Turner (NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, USA)

(Hyperion: exploring the evolution of star-forming clouds and planet-forming disks with far-UV spectroscopy from space)


Jun 2: Evgenya Shkolnik (Arizona State University, USA)

(A Holistic View of Exoplanets, their Environments, and their Potential to Host Life)


Jun 9: Jinyi Yang (University of Arizona, USA)

(General topic: High-z quasar searches)


Jun 16: NO SEMINAR (PG 1st year talks)

 


Jun 23: Marius Millea (UC Berkeley, USA)

(General topic: CMB lensing)


Jun 30: NO SEMINAR (PG late review talks)

Seminars 2019-20

Autumn term (2019-20)

  


Oct 2: Daniel Bayliss (Univ. of Warwick)

Exoplanet Science with NGTS and TESS


Oct 9: ICIC seminar: Daniel Mortlock (Imperial College London) 

Hubble Trouble


Oct 16: ICIC seminar: Natalia Porqueres (Imperial College London)

Inferring the Dynamical Growth of Structures at High Redshift


Oct 23: ICIC seminar: Fabian Schmidt (Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching)

New Approaches to Galaxy Clustering


Oct 30: Jonathan Tan (Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden)

A Light in the Dark: Massive Star Birth Through Cosmic Time


Nov 6: Cora Uhlemann (DAMTP, Univ. of Cambridge)

Cosmology and fundamental physics with counts-in-cells


Nov 13: Sarah Casewell (Univ. of Leicester)

Irradiated brown dwarfs: Providing insights into exoplanet atmospheres


Nov 20: Ian Parry (Univ. of Cambridge)

Searching for the 763nm oxygen "bio-signature" with large space telescopes


Nov 27: Anastasia Fialkov (Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Univ. of Cambridge)

Unveiling cosmic dawn 


Dec 4: Mark Wyatt (Univ. of Cambridge)

(General topic: Debris disks and planet formation)


Dec 11: Anne Hutter (Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Groningen, Netherlands)

(General topic: Reionisation and galaxy formation)


 

Spring term (2019-20)

  


Jan 15: Beatriz Mingo Fernandez (Open Univ.)

(What can LOFAR teach us about AGN? LoTSS!) 


Jan 22: NO SEMINAR (Astro Open Day)  


Jan 29: Mark Wyatt (Univ. of Cambridge)

(Exocomets and their effect on inner planet atmospheres) 


Feb 5: Nikos Nikolaou (University College London)

(Pushing the Limits of Exoplanet Discovery via Direct Imaging with Deep Learning) 


Feb 12: Chris Manser (Univ. of Warwick / Imperial College: Imperial College Research Fellow)

(Planetary systems at white dwarfs)


Feb 19: Rajesh Mondal (Univ. of Sussex)

(General topic: Computational cosmology) 


Feb 26: Hannah Wakeford (Space Telescope Science Institute (USA) / Univ. of Bristol)

(General topic: Characterising exoplanet atmospheres) 


Mar 4: ICIC seminar: Chieh-An Lin (Univ. of Edinburgh)

(General topic: Cosmology, gravitational lensing) 


Mar 11: Mariangela Lisanti (Princeton Univ.)

(General topic: Astroparticle physics, dark matter) 


Mar 18: NO SEMINAR

 

Summer term (2019-20) 


Apr 29: Laura Kreidberg (Harvard Univ. (USA) / MPIA Heidelberg)

Big Steps Toward Small Worlds: Exoplanet Atmosphere Characterization in the Next Decade and Beyond


May 6: Ilse Cleeves (Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville (USA)) 

Illuminating the Chemistry of Planet Formation with X-ray Flares


May 13: Konrad Kuijken (Univ. of Leiden)

Cosmology from Gravitational Lensing with the Kilo-Degree Survey 


May 20: Hannah Wakeford (Univ. of Bristol)

(General topic: Exoplanets) 


May 27: Alan Heavens (Imperial College London)

 Should Dark Galaxies Exist?


Jun 3: Blake Sherwin (Univ. of Cambridge)

(General topic: Cosmology, lensing)


Jun 10: Michael Rowan-Robinson (Imperial College London)

A search for Planet 9 in the IRAS data


Jun 17: NO SEMINAR (Astro student talks) 


Jun 24: ICIC seminar: Chieh-An Lin (Univ. of Edinburgh) (NOTE: 11 am UK time)

(General topic: Cosmology, gravitational lensing)

Seminars 2018-19

Autumn term (2018-19)

Oct 3: Rebecca Canning (Stanford Univ., USA)

The Cluster AGN Topography Survey: Disentangling AGN and Large-Scale Structure


Oct 10: Kate Rowlands (Johns Hopkins Univ., USA) (note: 2:30 start)

Caught in the Act: Charting Galaxy Transformation over Cosmic Time


Oct 17: TBD

TBD


Oct 23 (Tuesday): Yamila Miguel (Univ. of Leiden) (note: 3-4 pm, Blackett 741. Special seminar replacing Wed Oct 24) 

The Interior of Jupiter Revealed by Juno


Oct 24: CANCELLED, replaced by above


Oct 31: Colin McNally (Queen Mary Univ. London)

Towards a new understanding of planet migration in modern models of protoplanetary discs


Nov 7: Julian Adamek (Queen Mary Univ. London)

Relativistic Effects in Cosmic Large-scale Structure


Nov 14: Annelies Mortier (Univ. of Cambridge)

Stellar Spectroscopy in Exoplanet Research


Nov 21: Brooke Simmons (Lancaster Univ.)

Illuminating the Growth of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes


Nov 28: Paul Rimmer (Univ. of Cambridge)

Abiogenesis Zones around M-Dwarfs


Dec 5: Nate Bastian (Liverpool John Moores Univ.)

The E-MOSAICS Project: Simulating the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies and their Globular Cluster Systems across Cosmic History


Dec 12: Jason McEwan (UCL) (note: ICIC seminar)

High-dimensional uncertainty quantification in astrophysics


Dec 19: Chiaki Hikage (Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, Univ. of Tokyo, Japan)

Cosmology from cosmic shear power spectra with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam data


Winter term (2018-19) 

Jan 16: Tom Theuns (Durham Univ.)

An analytical model of galaxy formation


Jan 23: NO SEMINAR (Astro Open Day)


Jan 30: Grant Kennedy (Univ. of Warwick) 

Disks and their interactions with (sub-)stellar companions


Feb 6: Catherine Walsh (Univ. of Leeds)

The chemistry of planet-forming disks in the era of ALMA


Feb 13: Matthew Genge (Imperial College, Dept. of Earth Science & Engineering) 

Interplanetary dust and the origins of life on Earth


Feb 20: Giulio Fabbian (Univ. of Sussex)

Challenges for Cosmology and Astrophysics with CMB lensing and galaxy surveys cross-correlations


Feb 27: CANCELLED


Mar 6: Roman Rafikov (DAMTP, Univ. of Cambridge)

Nature and Origin of 'Oumuamua - First Interstellar Visitor to the Solar System


Mar 13: Cassandra Hall (Univ. of Leicester)

Gravitational instability and substructure in protoplanetary discs 


Mar 20: Bill Chaplin (Univ. of Birmingham)

Asteroseismology and Exoplanets

 

Spring term (2018-19) 

May 1Harry Desmond (Univ. of Oxford)

Fifth force searches in galaxies


May 8Clare Dobbs (Univ. of Exeter)

Simulations of the galaxy M33 - determining the spiral structure and properties of GMCs


May 15: Shirley Ho (Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation, New York, USA)

Machine Learning the Universe: Opening the Pandora Box


May 22: CANCELLED


May 29: Keir Rogers (Stockholm Univ.) (note: ICIC seminar)

Bayesian emulator optimisation: optimised interpolation of astrophysical simulations


Jun 5: Tassia Ferreira (Federal Univ. of Esprito Santo, Brazil / Carnegie Mellon Univ., USA)

The tale of two projects: covariance matrices and interaction in the dark sector


Jun 12: Emre Isik (MPS, Göttingen; Turkish-German Univ., Istanbul)

Forward modelling of magnetic activity diagnostics in Sun-like stars


Jun 19: Suzanne Aigrain (Univ. of Oxford)

Getting the most out of radial velocity planet searches by embracing the stellar noise


Jun 26: Ed Gillen (Univ. of Cambridge)

(General topic: Early evolution of stellar and planetary systems)

 

Seminars 2017-18

Autumn term (2017-18)

Oct 4: David Valls-Gabaud (Observatoire de Paris)

The MESSIER Surveyor: Lifting the Veil on the Ultra-Low Surface Brightness Universe


Oct 11: Ali Dariush (Univ. of Cambridge)

A Multi-Dsciplinary Approach Towards Analysing Medical Images


Oct 18: Pierre Sikivie (University of Florida, Gainesville)

The Search for Axions


Oct 25: Nikku Madhusudhan (Univ. of Cambridge)

Chemical Characterisation of Exoplanetary Atmospheres


Nov 1: Amaury Triaud (Univ. of Birmingham)

The Plurality of Worlds


Nov 6: Special Seminar: Adam Burgasser (Univ. of California San Diego)

Spectral Binaries: A Novel Approach for Measuring the Binary Fraction of Very Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs


Nov 8: Richard Alexander (Univ. of Leicester)

Building Planetary Systems


Nov 15: Prof. Joseph Conlon (Univ. of Oxford )

Search for Axions and Dark Matter from Active Galactic Nuclei


Nov 22: Alkistis Pourtsidou (Queen Mary Univ. of London)

Synergies between 21-cm Intensitity Mapping, Optical, and CMB Surveys 


Nov 29: Rachael Ainsworth (Univ. of Manchester)

Young Sun-Like Stars at Metre Wavelengths & Open Science in Astronomy


Dec 6: Nina Hatch (Univ. of Nottingham)


Dec 13: Guillem Anglada (Queen Mary Univ. of London)


Winter term (2017-18)

Jan 10: cancelled


Jan 17: no seminar (PG Open Day)


Jan 24: Tamara Rogers (Univ. of Newcastle)

Magnetism in Hot Jupiters


Jan 31: Florent Leclercq (Imperial)

Bayesian large-scale structure inference, likelihood-based and likelihood-free approaches


Feb 7: Fabio Antonini (Univ. of Surrey)

Nuclear clusters and (supermassive) black holes


Feb 14: Daan Meerburg (Univ. of Cambridge) 

Cosmological challenges: neutrino mass


Feb 21: Ben Farmer (Imperial)

Global fits and Bayesian naturalness


Feb 28: Cancelled


Mar 7: Cancelled


Mar 14: Min-Kai Lin (ASIAA Sinica, Taiwan)


Mar 21: Michael Rowan-Robinson (Imperial)

Spring term (2017-18)

May 2: Jay Farihi (UCL)

Exoplanetary Archaeology: The Fossil Record of Rocky Planetary Systems


May 9: Will Handley (Univ. of Cambridge)

Nested Sampling: an efficient and robust Bayesian inference tool for 
astrophysics and cosmology


May 16: Jack Line (Univ. of Melbourne, Australia)

A rundown of the MWA EoR experiment


May 23: Duncan Farrah (Virginia Tech, USA)

Insights into galaxy assembly from luminous AGN in the distant Universe


May 30: Caroline Dorn (Univ. of Zurich, Switzerland)

Interior characterization for multiplanetary systems: Trappist-1


June 6: Samantha Penny (Univ. of Portsmouth)

Examining low mass galaxy evolution through SDSS-IV MaNGA spatially resolved spectroscopy


June 13: Helen Russell (Univ. of Cambridge)

Massive molecular gas flows and AGN feedback in galaxy clusters


June 20: Jessica Spake (Univ. of Exeter)

Helium in the upper atmospheres of exoplanets


June 27: Richard Nelson (Queen Mary Univ. of London)

Migration and growth of planets in non-turbulent protoplanetary discs

Seminars 2016-17

AUTUMN TERM 2016

Oct 5

Eric Feigelson (Penn State)

Astrostatistics: The role of statistics in astronomical research

Oct 12

Michael Burgess (KTH Stockholm)

Exploring Gamma-ray Bursts via the Bayesian Paradigm

Oct 19

Nick Kaiser (IfA, University of Hawaii)

Gravitational Redshifts in Clusters of Galaxies

Oct 26

Heather Campbell (University of Surrey)

How SNe Ia host galaxy properties affect cosmological parameters and Gaia Science Alerts

Nov 2

Sarah Rugheimer (University of St. Andrews)

Impact of UV on Characterizing Pale Blue Dots around Other Stars

Nov 9

Anne Green (University of Nottingham)

Probing the astrophysics and particle physics of WIMPs with direct detection experiments

Nov 16

Matthew Auger (IoA, University of Cambridge)

The Evolution of Dark and Stellar Mass in Massive Stellar Galaxies

Nov 23

Mark Sullivan (University of Southampton)

The transient universe: Cosmic explosions and dark energy 

Nov 30

Steve Longmore (Liverpool John Moores University)

The Galactic Centre: A template for understanding star formation and feedback in a high-pressure environment

Dec 7

Piero Madau (University of California Santa Cruz)

The Dark and Light Side of Galaxy Formation

Dec 14

Matt Browning (University of Exeter)

Magnetism, Buoyancy and Dissipation in Convective Stars and Planets


SPRING TERM 2017

Jan 18

Thomas Bisbas (MPE Garching)

The Effect of Cosmic Rays on the Observability of H2 Gas in the Universe

Jan 25

Tom Haworth (Imperial College London)

Multiphysics Modelling in Astronomy

Feb 1

cancelled

Feb 8

Suman Majumdar (Imperial College London)

Various Estimators of the Redshifted 21-cm Signal from the Epoch of Reionisation

Feb 15

Julie Wardlow (University of Durham)

Unveiling Extreme Dusty Star Formation at z > 2

Feb 22

cancelled

Mar 1

Jan Forbrich (University of Hertfordshire)

The Orion Radio All-Stars: New Perspectives in Stellar Radio Astronomy

Mar 8

Stephen Wilkins (University of Sussex)

Observations and Simulations of the Epoch of Reionisation 

Mar 15

Aaron Vincent (Imperial College London)

Dark Matter in the Sun

Mar 22

Carole Mundell (University of Bath)

Black Hole Driven Explosions and the Dynamic Universe


SUMMER TERM 2017

May 3

Farzana Meru (Univ. of Cambridge)

The Role of Self-Gravitating Discs in Planet Formation: Recent Developments from Theory and Observations

May 10

Lewis Dartnell (Univ. of Westminster)

Martian Death Rays: Cosmic Radiation and the Search for Life on Mars 

May 17

Prof. Raul Jimenez (Univ. of Barcelona)

Our (current) understanding of the Universe

May 24

Andrew Pontzen (University College London)

A New Approach to Cosmological Simulations of Galaxy Formation and Large Scale Structure

May 31

Aline Vidotto (Trinity College Dublin)

Stellar Magnetic Activity and Their Effects on Planets (and vice-versa)

Jun 7

Prof. Sarah Bridle (University of Manchester)

From Astrophysics to Agriculture

Jun 14

Prof. Peter Coles (Cardiff University)

Cosmological Wave Mechanics

Jun 21

Dimitra Rigopoulou (University of Oxford)

The Interstellar Medium of Galaxies Near and Far: New Clues for Galaxy Evolution

Jun 28

James Owen (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)

Clues as to How the Kepler Planets Formed

Seminars 2015-16

SPRING TERM 2016

20 January

Gerry Gilmore (IoA Cambridge)

Gaia - Galactic, Extragalactic, Solar System and Cosmology Science

27 January

Tom Kitching (MSSL UCL)

Doing physics with weak lensing surveys

3 February

Sarah Kendrew (Oxford)

High-redshift galaxy kinematics in the E-ELT era

10 February

Michelle Collins (Surrey)

The Faintest Galaxies as probes of cosmology and galactic evolution

17 February

Miguel Quartin (Rio)

The Cosmic Supernova Recycling Program

24 February

Sean Matt (Exeter)

Rotation, Magnetic Activity, and Mass Loss of Sun-Like Stars

2 March

No seminar

9 March

Rubina Kotax (Queen's Belfast)

Eruptions and explosions of massive stars: current enigmas and future prospects

16 March

David van Dyk (Imperial)

Science-Driven Image Analysis in Astronomy and Solar Physics (ICIC seminar)

23 March

Hiranya Peiris (UCL)

Towards fundamental physics with cosmological surveys


SUMMER TERM 2016

27 April

Haley Gomez (Cardiff)

Dusty Galaxies and smoking supernovae

4 May

Xiaohui Fan (Arizona)

The most massive Black Holes in the Early Universe

11 May

Olja Panic (IoA Cambridge)

Warm and cold cradles of giant planets

18 May

Andy Taylor (Edinburgh)

No go for cosmic self-acceleration

25 May

Nick Kaiser (IfA Hawaii)

Biases in the cosmological distance-redshift relation

1 June

Yvonne Unruh (Imperial)

Modelling solar magnetic variability

8 June

Manda Banerji (IoA Cambridge)

Dusty quasars in the high-redshift Universe: supermassive Black Holes in formation?

15 June

Mark Wilkinson (Leicester)

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies: cosmological probes on our doorstep

22 June

Mark Hannam (Cardiff)

When black holes collide: the dawn of gravitational-wave astronomy

Seminar organiser: Professor Alan Heavens (a.heavens AT imperial.ac.uk)

Seminars 2014-15

SPRING TERM 2015

Wednesday 21 January 2015

Chris Blake (Swinburne)

Testing gravitational physics with cosmological observations

Wednesday 4 February 2015 (ICIC seminar)

Daniel Mortlock (Imperial)

Bayesian model comparison in astronomy and cosmology

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Beth Biller (Edinburgh)

Detecting and Characterising Planets with Direct Imaging

Wednesday 18 February 2015

Amelie Saintonge (UCL)

Gas accretion and star formation: drivers of galaxy evolution

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Monica Grady (Open University)

Rosetta and Philae

Wednesday 18 March 2015 (ICIC seminar)

Iain Murray (Edinburgh)

Machine learning methods for density estimation, as tools for astronomy


SUMMER TERM 2015

29 Apr 2015

Serena Viti (UCL)

Determining the physical and chemical conditions of AGN and starburst galaxies        

6 May 2015

Jonathan Tan (Florida)

Inside-out Planet Formation

13 May 2015

Natasha Karpenko (Southampton)

Bayesian numerical recipes for supernova data analysis: cosmology and photometric classification

(ICIC seminar)

20 May 2015

George Efstathiou (KICC Cambridge)

Cosmology with Planck 2015

27 May 2015

Andrei Mesinger (Pisa)

What can we learn from observations of reionisation? 

(ICIC seminar)

3 June 2015

John Peacock (Edinburgh)

Gravitational lensing and the cosmic photosphere

17 June 2015

Sergey Koposov (IoA Cambridge)

Streams and satellites: Galactic Archaeology with large surveys

24 June 2015

Rita Tojeiro (St Andrews)

The case for fully-resolved star-formation histories: difficult, but worth it 


AUTUMN TERM 2015

7 October

Marcel Agüeros (Columbia)

Setting Stellar Chronometers: The PTF Open Cluster Survey

14 October

Bruce Bassett (Cape Town)

Trying to break cosmology

21 October

Baojiu Li (Durham)

Following light through cosmological simulations

28 October

Rennan Barkana (Tel Aviv)

Observing the First Stars with 21-cm Cosmology

4 November

Anze Slosar (Brookhaven)

Cosmology with the Lyman-alpha forest

18 November

Franz Elsner (UCL)

Parameter estimation in cosmology - the Planck likelihood

25 November

Tara Murphy (Sydney)

Exploring the dynamic radio sky with the Murchison Widefield Array

2 December

Boris Leistedt (NYU)

From precision to accuracy: cosmology with large imaging surveys

16 December

Amy Bonsor (IoA Cambridge)

Dust, Comets and Planets

Seminars 2013-14

ASTROPHYSICS SEMINARS

SPRING TERM

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Nick Kaiser (University of Hawaii)

Gravitational Redshifts in Clusters of Galaxies

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Ray Jayawardhana (University of Toronto)

Characterizing exoplanets

 
Wednesday 29 January 2014  (ICIC Seminar)

Roberto Trotta (Imperial College)

Bayesian model selection of inflationary models:The best inflationary models after Planck

PLEASE NOTE THE EARLIER TIME, AND CHANGED LOCATION.

 
Wednesday 5 February 2014

John Ellis (King's College)

Planck-Compatible Inflationary Models

Wednesday 19 February 2014 

Paul O'Brien (University of Leicester)

Gamma-Ray Bursts

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Jaiyul Yoo (Heidelberg)

New Perspective on Galaxy Clustering and Cosmology

 
Wednesday 5 March 2014

Cristina Popescu (University of Lancaster)

Radiative transfer modelling of galaxies

 

Wednesday 19 March 2014
Didier Queloz (University of Cambridge)

Exoplanets and the nature of other worlds

Wednesday 26 March 2014
Matt Browning (University of Exeter)

Simulations of Convection and Magnetism in Stars

 

SUMMER TERM

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Lucia Marchetti (Open University)

The HerMES FIR/SMM Luminosity function evolution,

charting the Obscured Star Formation History of the Universe

SEMINAR POSTPONED TO A LATER DATE 

 

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Karen Masters (Portsmouth)

Galaxy Zoo

 

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Andrew Pontzen (UCL)

Astrophysical effects that might irritate cosmologists

Wednesday 28 May 2014 (Note location)

Fiona Harrison (CalTech)

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)

Location: Huxley 308

 

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Isobel Hook (Oxford/Rome)

The European Extremely Large Telescope

 

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Jenni Adams (Canterbury, NZ)

IceCube Neutrino Physics

 

Wednesday 18 June 2014

Don Pollacco (Warwick)

The Hunt for Earth-2

AUTUMN TERM 2014

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Lyndsay Fletcher (Glasgow)

Energy transport and particle acceleration in solar (and stellar) flares

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Celine Boehm (Durham)

Dark Matter interactions and their impact on cosmological probes

Wednesday 22 October 2014

No seminar

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Ewan Cameron (Oxford)

Three faces of weak convergence with astronomical relevance! (ICIC seminar)

 

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Andy Connolly (Washington)

Astronomy in the era of the LSST: understanding our universe a bit at a time

 

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Stuart Sim (Belfast)

Explosion modelling for Type Ia supernovae

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Lucia Marchetti (Open University)

The HerMES FIR/SMM Luminosity function evolution,

charting the Obscured Star Formation History of the Universe

 

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Department Colloquium

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Francesco Shankar (Southampton)

Empirically constraining the Evolution of Super-massive Black Holes

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Steve Balbus (Oxford)

Convection and rotation in the Sun

Wednesday 17 December 2014

Mario Santos (Cape Town)

Cosmology with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

 

See also 3-PAC Seminars

 


COSMOLOGY SEMINARS

SUMMER TERM:

Friday 9th May

Stefano Orani (University of Basel)

Hilltop inflation with preinflation from coupling to matter field

 

Friday 16th May

Chris Clarkson (UCT Astrophysics, Cosmology & Gravity Centre)

Relativistic corrections in cosmological modelling

Relativistic corrections in cosmological modelling

Friday 6th June

Levon Pogosian (SFU Canada)
CMB B-modes - the quest for other smoking guns

Friday 13th June

Chris Gordon (UC New Zealand)

Evaluating the evidence for dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Center

 

Friday 20th June

Kepa Sousa (UPV/EHU Bilbao)

CMB Anisotropies by Collapsing Textures

 

Friday 27th June

Pawel Bielewicz (SISSA Italy)
Constraining the topology of the Universe using temperature and polarisation CMB maps

 

Relativistic corrections in cosmological modelling

Seminars 2012-13

SPRING TERM


23  January 2013

Clare Dobbs (University of Exeter)

The formation and evolution of giant molecular clouds


30 January  

Lingyu Wang (University of Durham)

The nature of star-forming galaxies


6 February

Rachael Livermore (University of Durham)

Clumpy star formation at high redshift revealed with gravitational lensing


20 February

Sebastiano Cantalupo (UC Santa Cruz)

Dark galaxies and circum-galactic filaments illuminated by high-redshift quasars


27 February

Vivienne Wild (University of St Andrews)

The evolution of star-burst galaxies


6 March

Pratika Dayal (University of Edinburgh)

Galaxies in the first billion years tracing reionization and the cosmic dawn


13 March

Joe Hilbe (Arizona State University)

The use of statistical count models in astrostatistics


20 March Tim Naylor (University of Exeter)

How fast do planets and stars form?  A radical revision to the pre-main-sequence age scale


17 April

Anna Feltre  (ESO, Garching)

Modelling IR SEDs of AGN with Spitzer and Herschel data


SUMMER TERM

 
1 May

David Sing (University of Exeter)

A large HST transmission spectral survey of hot-Jupiter exoplanetary atmospheres


8 May

Nick Wright (University of Hertfordshire)

The Dynamics of young star clusters


22 May

Matthew Ruffoni (Imperial College London)

Laboratory studies of atomic spectra for astrophysical applications


29 May

Anna Scaife (University of Southampton)

Magnetic fields in heavenly bridges


5 June

Clare Dobbs (University of Exeter)

The formation and evolution of giant molecular clouds


12 June

Jamie Bolton (University of Nottingham)

Reionisation via the Lyman-alpha line


19 June

Michael Brown (University of Manchester)

Prospects for weak lensing studies with new radio telescopes


20 June

Michelle Knights (University of Cape Town)

Improving stacking techniques with Bayesian statistics

2 October

Mike Shull

Colorado

New Results from the Hubble Cosmic Origins Spectrograph

9 October

Ilya Mandel

Birmingham

GWastrophysics of compact binaries

16 October

   

(Department Colloquium)

23 October

Karin Lind

IoA Cambridge

The two cosmological Li problems

30 October

Will Percival

Portsmouth

Cosmological results from BOSS galaxy clustering

6 November

Debora Sijacki

IoA Cambridge

Moving mesh cosmology: the hydrodynamics of galaxy formation

13 November

Maria Desi-Espuig

MPS Lindau

Reconstructing total solar irradiance since 1700

 

20 November

   

(Department Colloquium)

27 November

Marzia Rivi

Oxford

Visualisation and exploration of huge astrophysical datasets with Splotch

4 December

Tim Harries

Exeter

The formation of massive stars

Seminars 2011-12

ASTROPHYSICS SEMINARS (2012)

All seminars begin at 2.30pm in room 1004, Blackett Laboratory, unless otherwise indicated below, and are followed by refreshments and discussion. Seminar organiser: Dr Daniel Mortlock (d.mortlock AT imperial.ac.uk)

Wednesday, May 2

Rhodri Evans (Cardiff University)

"Astonomy from a Boeing 747: why and how"


Wednesday, May 9

Luca Fossati (Open University)

"HST observations of the transiting exoplanet WASP-12b: deepening into a complex system"


Wednesday, May 23

Chiara Arina (Aachen University)

"Dark Matter direct detection and Bayesian statistics"


Wednesday, May 30

Chris Carilli (National Radio Astronomy Observatory)

"A molecular deep field"


Wednesday, June 6

Michael Rowan-Robinson (Imperial College)

"Interstellar dust in the inner solar system" 


Wednesday, June 20 

Elisabetta Valianted (University of Cardiff)

"Submillimetre observations of galaxy evolution"


Wednesday, June 27

Roberto Maiolino (University of Cambridge)

"The evolution of the metals and dust content in galaxies throughout the cosmic epochs"


COSMOLOGY SEMINARS (2012)

All seminars begin at 12 noon in the Theoretical Physics seminar room, Room 503, Huxey Building, unless otherwise indicated below. Seminar organisers: Laura Watson (l.watson09 AT imperial.ac.uk) and Caroline Clark (caroline.clark05 AT imperial.ac.uk) 

4th May

Anne Green (Nottingham)

"The Search for Dark Matter"


18th May

Dipak Munshi (Cardiff)

"Statistical Properties of Thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Maps"


25th May

Michelle Knights (Cape Town)

"Towards the Future of Supernova Cosmology"


8th June

Robert Crittenden (Portsmouth)

"Fables of Reconstruction: Controlling Bias in the Dark Energy Equation of State"


15th June

Lloyd Knox (UC Davis, California)

Title TBA

Seminars 2009-10

 Seminars 2010
ASTROPHYSICS SEMINARS (2010)COSMOLOGY SEMINARS (2010)

All seminars begin at 2.30pm in room 1004, Blackett Laboratory, unless otherwise indicated below, and are followed by refreshments and discussion. Seminar organiser: Prof. Stephen Warren

All seminars begin at 1pm in the Theoretical Physics seminar room, Room 503, Huxey Building, unless otherwise indicated below. Seminar organisers: Jude Bowyer and Johannes Noller

Apr 28
Prof Hagai Netzer (Tel-Aviv University)
"Co-evolution of active and star-forming galaxies from z=2 to z=0" 

May 5
Dr Sugata Kaviraj (Imperial)
"The evolution of early-type galaxies: the last 8 billion years" 

May 12
Prof Simon Driver (University of St Andrews)
"Galaxy and Mass Assembly" 

May 19
Dr Vivienne Wild (Institut d'astrophysique de Paris)
"Timing the starburst-AGN connection" 

May 26
Dr Susan Whitfield (British Museum)
"The world’s earliest manuscript star chart: a Silk Road mystery"

June 2
Dr Dave Clements (Imperial)
"Herschel and Herschel surveys"

June 9
Dr Mark Westmoquette (University College London)
"Spatially-resolved studies of super star cluster feedback in starburst galaxies"

June 16
Prof Mike Edmunds (Cardiff University)
"The Antikythera mechanism"

June 23 (2pm start)
Prof Michael Rowan-Robinson (Imperial)
"Cold dust and young starbursts: models for SEDs of Herschel galaxies"

June 30 (4pm start)
Shyam Bhayani, Variability spectra of local Seyfert galaxies
Jude Bowyer, CMB B-modes and inflation
Jonathan Digby-North, X-ray selected AGN at z~1: The colour-magnitude diagram

6th October
Dr Stefano Andreon (Osservatorio di Brera)
"Cluster scaling relation and baryon fraction" 

13th October
Dr Elaine Winston (Exeter)
"Near-ir and X-ray observations of the Serpens cloud" 

20th October
Dr Jo Dunkley (Oxford)
"The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: results from the 2008 survey"

27th October
Prof Tom Shanks (Durham)
"Problems for the standard cosmology" 

3rd November
Dr Karen Masters (Portsmouth)
"The enigma of red spirals"

Thursday 4th November 11am Blackett 741
Dr Carsten Weidner (St Andrews)
"The integrated galactic IMF - from star clusters to galaxies"

10th November
Dr Claudia Maraston (Portsmouth)
"Stellar population models and clues on galaxy evolution" 

17th November
Dr Aline Vidotto (St Andrews)
"The Influence of the Stellar Wind on the Magnetospheres of Close-in Giant Planets"

24th November
Dr Sami Dib (Imperial)
"Variations of the Stellar Initial Mass Function: Is it Physics or Random Sampling?"

1st December
Dr Suagta Kaviraj (Imperial)

15th December
Dr Roberto Mignani (MSSL) 
"Radio Pulsars and the Neutron Star Fraternity"

 

 

January 22 - start time 12.00
Marc Lilley
"Coupled currents in cosmic strings"

February 5 - start time 12.00
Andrew Liddle
"Dark Sector Unification"

February 12 - start time 12.00
Bernd Schroers
"Galilean quantum gravity in 2+1 dimensions"

February 19 - start time 12.00
Antonios Papazoglou
"Horava-Lifshitz Gravity"

February 22 - start time 13.00
Furqaan Yusaf
"MOND and TeVeS Modified Gravity: Testing the Theories"

February 26 - start time 12.00
Laila Alabidi
"Single Field Models of Inflation after WMAP 7"

March 5 - start time 12.00
Bob Nichol
"SDSS: Supernova, wiggles and more"

March 12 - start time 12.00
Marco Bruni
"Dark Side Dynamics: UDM models with fast transition"

March 15 - start time 13.00
Leonid Grishchuk
"Relic Gravitational Waves in the Light of Latest CMB Observations"

March 19 - start time 12.00
Subir Sarkar
"The PAMELA anomaly: new physics or old astrophysics?"

March 26 - start time 12.00
HongSheng Zhao
 "Universal scale for baryons at Maximum Halo Gravity"

May 7 - start time 12.00

Martin Hendry
"De-lensing Gravitational Wave Standard Sirens"

May 17 - start time 13.00
Wen Zhao
"Quantum Yang-Mills Condensate Dark Energy Models"

May 21 - start time 12.00
Angela Olinto
"The highest energy cosmic particles"

May 28 - start time 12.00
Shaun Thomas
"The new MegaZ: Photometric galaxy clustering, neutrino masses and signs of
new physics?"

June 4 - start time 12.00
Anupam Mazumdar
"Origin for creating matter and perturbations in the Universe"

June 11 - start time 12.00
Hiranya Peiris
"Fingerprints of the Early Universe"

June 18 - start time 12.00
Anders Tranberg
"Cold Electroweak Baryogenesis from Standard Model CP-violation"

June 25 - start time 12.00
Roger Clowes
"The largest features of the early universe: a re-examination of the
Clowes & Campusano Large Quasar Group with the SDSS"

July 2 - start time 13.00
Shaun Hotchkiss
"Primordial Features and Non-Gaussianities"

July 9 - start time 13.00
Larissa Lorenz
"Stochastic Inflation in Compact Extra Dimensions"

July 16 - start time 12.00
Christophe Pichon
"The skeleton: connecting galaxy formation to large scale structures."

Seminars 2010

JOURNAL CLUB (2010)

Journal club begins at 12 pm and takes place in room 1004, Blackett Laboratory. Please feel free to bring along your lunch. Hot beverages and biscuits will be available (please bring your own mug). Journal club organiser: Dr Markos Trichas

Seminars 2008-09

 

SEMINARS (2009)
ASTROPHYSICS SEMINARS (2009)COSMOLOGY SEMINARS 2009

All seminars begin at 2.30pm in room 1004, Blackett Laboratory, unless otherwise indicated below, and are followed by refreshments and discussion. Seminar organiser: Prof Steven Warren

All seminars begin at 1pm in the Theoretical Physics seminar room, Room 503, Huxey Building, unless otherwise indicated below. Seminar organisers: Jude Bowyer and Johannes Noller

October 7 - start time 2pm
Dr HongSheng Zhao (St Andrews)
"Cold dark matter: Some likes it hot sometimes"

October 14
Professor Chris Done (Durham)
"Black hole accretion flows"

October 21
Dr Johannes Knapp (Leeds)
"Ultra high energy cosmic rays and results from the Pierre Auger Observatory"

October 28
Professor Hume Feldman (Kansas)
"Cosmic flows on 100 Mpc scales"

November 4
Dr Ilian Iliev (Sussex)
"Simulating early cosmic structures and the epoch of reionization"

November 11 - SEMINAR POSTPONED 

November 18
Dr Daniel Thomas (Portsmouth)
"AGN feedback and galaxy formation"

November 25
Professor Isobel Hook (Oxford)
"The European Extremely Large Telescope"

December 2
Dr Giovanna Tinetti (UCL)
"Observations and modelling of transiting planet atmospheres"

December 9
Dr Subhanjoy Mohanty (Imperial): Title TBC

December 16
Doron Lemze (Tel Aviv)
"Multi-wavelength studies of galaxy clusters and their use as cosmological probes"

October 2 - start time 13.00

Sébastien Renaux-Petel (Laboratoire APC Paris)
"Primordial non-Gaussianities from string theory: multifield inflation with non standard actions"

October 9 - start time 13.00
Professor Hume Feldman (Kansas)
"Nonlinear Effects in the Amplitude of Cosmological Density Fluctuations"

October 16 - start time 13.00
Dr Gustavo Niz (Nottingham)
"Can M-theory resolve the Big Crunch/Big Bang singularity?"

October 19 - start time 15.00
Professor Pisin Chen (Taiwan/Stanford)
"Cosmological Constant as a Manifestation of the Hierarchy"

October 23 - start time 13.00
Dr Jean-Luc Lehners (Princeton)
"Observing the Multifield Cyclic Universe"

October 30 - start time 13.00
Elisa Fenu (Geneva)
"Primordial magnetic fields and their gravitational waves production"

November 6 - start time 13.00
Dr Shuntaro Mizuno (Nottingham)
"Non-Gaussianity in multi-field DBI inflation"

November 9 - start time 15.00
Dr Giulia Gubitosi (Rome)
"Planck-scale induced birefringence and CMB polarization data"

November 13 - start time 13.00
Dr Kazuya Koyama (Portsmouth)
"Scale dependent bias from primordial non-Gaussianity"

November 20 - start time 13.00
Professor Peter Coles (Cardiff)
"Cosmic Anomalies"

November 27 - start time 13.00
Dr Marco Bruni (Portsmouth): TBA

December 4 - start time 13.00
Dr Michael Bridges (Cambridge): TBA

December 11 - start time 13.00
Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker (Cambridge)
"Cluster observations with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager"

December 16 - start time 13.00
Dr Federico Piazza (Perimeter Institute)
"Modifying gravity in the Infra Red by imposing an 'ultra-strong' equivalence principle"

Seminars

JOURNAL CLUB (2009)

Journal club begins at 12 pm and takes place in room 1004, Blackett Laboratory. Please feel free to bring along your lunch. Hot beverages and biscuits will be available (please bring your own mug). Journal club organiser: Dr Markos Trichas.