Thank you for taking time out to discover who I am and what I do.
I'm currently in my 4th year as a PhD student at the Astronomy Group in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nottingham, supervised by Prof. Omar Almaini and David Maltby.
The purpose of this site is to highlight what I am working on, and to provide an insight into what I do and why I do it.
My research focuses on the evolution of galaxies in the distant Universe. In particular, I aim to further our understanding of why galaxies cease forming stars through investigating the properties of post-starburst galaxies, primarily using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
I applied a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique to identify over 800 post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 3.0 using photometric data from the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope.
I detect an upturn at the low-mass end of the PSB mass function out to z ~ 2, which is a potential indicator of environmental quenching. Furthermore, under the assumption that all PSBs evolve into passive galaxies, I find that applying a uniform visibility time, irrespective of mass, results in an overproduction of low-mass passive galaxies. This adds to the growing evidence for post-starburst galaxies being comprised of distinct high- and low-mass populations.
I am currently investigating how the structure of PSBs vary across different masses. Preliminary results suggest that high-mass PSBs are incredibly compact, whereas at low-mass they have morphologies more comparable to star-forming galaxies with similar masses.
This work involves a great deal of detailed data analysis, which I primarily perform in Python, however I also have experience with MATLAB and IDL.
We investigate whether there is excess AGN activity in recently quenched massive galaxies.
The abstract can be read here.
My talk is entitled "Investigating the rapid quenching of galaxies using JWST".
Various internal talks at the Centre for Astronomy & Particle Theory, University of Nottingham.
| 2022-present | Astronomy PhD student |
| 2018-2022 | MSci Physics with Theoretical Astrophysics (2:1) |
| 2011-2018 | 3 A Levels (Maths, Further Maths & Physics) AS Level in Chemistry 11 GCSEs |
This section highlights some of my paid and volunteering work whilst at the University of Nottingham, in addition to some of the things I get up to outside of astronomy.
I am an active member of the UoN Korfball club, which I joined at the start of the 2021/22 season after discovering the sport, and I initially played for the social team before working my way up to most recently playing for the 2nd team in the 2024/25 season. I was also selected by the British Student Korfball Association to represent Student GB in Turkey in June 2025.
I coached the 6th team for the 2023/24 season and the 5th team in the 2024/2025 season, where they finished 7th in the British University & College Sport (BUCS) National Shield competition, which is the highest-ever finish for a 5th team.
I am a qualified RYA Dinghy Instructor and I taught at the Medina Valley Centre on the Isle of Wight during the summer holidays, primarily teaching young people who had never sailed before. For several years I volunteered at Broadwater Sailing Club to help run their Junior Sailing sessions.
I was the Postgraduate Co-ordinator for the UoN Student Union (UoNSU) Welcome Programme in 2023. This meant I was part of the volunteer student committee who planned, organised and delivered the UoNSU events designed to welcome new and returning students to the University at the start of the academic year during Welcome Week (since rebranded as Freshers Week). This involved liaising with the other committee members and event planners to create a cohesive programme of events, in addition to managing the volunteer "Welcome Mentors" who assisted with delivering the events.
I have been a student ambassador for the School of Physics & Astronomy since 2019, working at both the Open Days and UCAS Offer Holder Days, where I lead tours of the department for prospective students and talk to them about what it's like to study physics at UoN. Occasionally I have been asked to be one of the student speakers at the Offer Holder Days to talk about my journey through University. Often I am asked to conduct individual tours for applicants who are unable to attend the Open and/or Offer Holder Days.
During the 2nd, 3rd and 4th years of my undergraduate course I was a Physics student mentor, where I helped 1st year student settle into University life, and held weekly drop-in sessions throughout the first semester.
In the first two years of my PhD I was a demonstrator for the Coding for Physical Science module, which introduced 1st year Physics students to coding in Python. I both marked coursework and assisted in the workshops, helping guide students when they needed help.
During the 2022/23 academic year I was the treasurer for the UoN Punk Society, which is a community for people who enjoy punk/alternative music. My role was to manage the overall finances of the society. I reorganised the way they were controlled by creating the first-ever financial tracking system used by the society. I also was the driving force behind PunkSoc accepting non-cash payments by setting up an online payments gateway for the society's flagship recurring event, which led to the other events also having non-cash payment options.