Seven astrophysics associates join college
Green Templeton is pleased to announce the election of Dr Alexander Andersson, Dr James Gillanders, Dr James Matthews, Dr Heloise Stevance, Dr Tom Williams, Dr Ian Heywood and Dr Steve Prabu as Research Associates. They form the first cohort of astrophysicists in a new venture to deepen the college’s links with astronomy as home of the Radcliffe Observatory.
Dr Alexander Andersson is an astronomer and astrophysicist. He graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in Physics, where the opportunity to visit and use real telescopes convinced him to do a postgraduate degree in astrophysics.
Alexander finished his DPhil studies in Oxford in 2024 with a thesis focusing on developing methods for finding transient sources in the night sky. Since September 2024 he has been a Breakthrough Listen Fellow and is using novel techniques to search for rare and elusive signals out in the Universe.
Dr James Gillanders is a postdoctoral research associate within the Astrophysics sub-department. His main research focus is on modelling observations of extreme stellar explosions and mergers.
In particular, James is most interested in understanding how and where the heaviest elements (e.g., platinum, gold, uranium) in the Universe are created. Prior to taking up employment in Oxford, he spent a year working as a postdoctoral research associate in Rome, and before that, studied for his PhD at Queen’s University Belfast.
Dr Ian Heywood is a senior researcher in radio astronomy at Oxford as well as a visiting professor at Rhodes University in South Africa. Ian specialises in processing the huge volumes of data that modern radio telescopes produce, and these days mainly use the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, which is the most powerful of its kind in the world.
Ian is interested in how supermassive black holes influence their host galaxies (including our own), and how we can detect the hydrogen that is the fuel supply for star formation in more distant galaxies.
He is also working on a system to rapidly make movies of the radio sky in order to search for bursts of radio emission from extreme and exotic objects, and potentially radio transmissions from extraterrestrial civilisations.
Dr James Matthews is an astrophysicist working at the University of Oxford as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. He is interested in the extreme and exotic physics that can be probed using black holes and the hot plasma around them.
James is also keen on public engagement, for example during Open Doors at Green Templeton or in partnership with Homeless Oxfordshire, and is passionate about improving research culture to make it fairer, kinder and more inclusive.
Dr Steve Prabu is an aerospace engineer with a PhD in radio astronomy.
Steve’s current interest lies in the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life outside of Earth, studying jet outflows from accreting black holes, and using radio telescopes as a passive radar to survey satellites and debris orbiting Earth.
Dr Heloise Stevance joined Oxford in April 2023 as one of the first Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Fellows. Originally born and raised in France, she moved to the UK to study Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield in 2011.
After working as a support astronomer at the Isaac Newton Group in La Palma for a year, Heloise obtained her Masters of Physics in 2015. She subsequently obtained a PhD in 2019 and went on to join the Auckland stellar evolution group.
Dr Tom Williams is an observational astronomer interested in how cold, molecular hydrogen transforms into stars, and how the conditions within a galaxy affect this. Questions such as ‘do spiral arms form stars more efficiently?’, or ‘how do galaxies shut off their star formation?’ are the kinds of things he is trying to answer.
To do this, Tom uses high-resolution observations of nearby galaxies across a broad wavelength range. At Oxford, Tom is am working with Professor Martin Bureau and the WISDOM collaboration to look at the gas and star formation in early-type galaxies.
Senior Research Fellow Professor Rob Fender and outgoing Head of Astrophysics, who has pioneered deeper engagement between the department and Green Templeton said,
‘I am delighted to see this first cohort of Astrophysics associates join the college. As the historical home of astronomy in Oxford, it is wonderful to see a new connection being built between young astrophysicists and the college.
‘This will enrich our cultural life, provide new opportunities for collaboration, and deliver further impetus to our public outreach programmes. I am personally very happy to have been involved in setting up this programme.’
This programme is supported by Green Templeton College, the University of Oxford sub-department of Astrophysics, Breakthrough Listen and The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation.
About Green Templeton and Astronomy
As the home to the iconic Radcliffe Observatory, the college has longstanding links to astronomy. Since 2023, the 250th anniversary of the establishment of astronomical observations at the Radcliffe Observatory, the college has been strengthening links with the Astrophysics sub-department of the university. This includes the establishment of the Observatory as the hub venue for Astrophysics’ largest annual outreach event. The new research associates joining are the next step in this developing relationship.
The college is also currently embarking on a Radcliffe Observatory conservation and decarbonisation project.
