Out Of This World

I'm an observational astronomer who uses telescopes on the ground and in space to try to understand the largest structures in the Universe. In this talk I’ll tell the story of how some chance weather on a mountaintop in Chile led to the work that would take up the next 15 years of my career. I’ll introduce the audience to my favourite patch of sky and discuss how my team and I peeled back the structures within, layer by layer, to reveal a rich zoo of colliding galaxies, hidden star formation, dark matter, supermassive black holes — and a few surprises as well.

Our universe is a fascinating place, in which mysterious entities like dark matter and dark energy seem to be playing a fundamental role. Over the past couple of decades we have witnessed spectacular progress in understanding its composition and evolution, driven by both theoretical and technological advances. This talk will describe the incredible story of our universe, explaining the key underlying ideas and the basic tools used in its reconstruction.

From the moment Yuri Gagarin blasted into space in 1961, crewed spaceflight has captured the imagination of the world. Along with the massive technological advances required to make human spaceflight possible, crewed space missions have conducted a plethora of science experiments to advance the knowledge of mankind. Fields as diverse as biology, geophysics, medicine, and astronomy have benefited from experiments in microgravity. I will summarise some of the most interesting science experiments that have taken place from the early days of the space race, through to cutting-edge research today.