Profile

I have worked in astronomy for over 40 years, studying in the UK (Manchester and London); flying helium balloons in texas; working for the European Space Agency in The Netherlands, in Hawaii at a telescope on Mauna Kea and now in Edinburgh building cameras for the Webb telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope in Chile.  I  now see the main purpose of astronomy as inspiring young people to get into STEM subjects.

The older I get, the more I value people and the world we share, so in my spare time I  take part in protests with organisations like Just Stop Oil, Friends of the Earth and Extinction Rebellion.

My youngest son and I have season tickets at Newcastle United.

I’m the lead scientist for the Webb space observatory’s ‘mid-infrared’ camera ‘MIRI’ and also the UK’s lead scientist for the Extremely Large Telescope spectrometer ‘METIS’. Both MIRI and METIS are designed for studying the atmosphere of exo-planets (planets orbiting distant stars).

I work with teams of engineers, astronomers, technicians and managers in teams across Europe, the US and Asia (Japan, Taiwan, Korea mainly), who join together to build these complex instruments.  For example, I worked on Webb/MIRI for 25 years, from the original concept, through procuring specialist components, building them and testing MIRI through the 2010s at NASA sites.  I then spent 6 months in 2022 in Baltimore leading a team working continuously to commissioing the telescope,,

Mostly at a computer writing code to analyse astronomical and lab test data.  I also spend an hour or so in the laboratory and clean room where we’re building METIS.   I give lectures and talks to students at Edinburgh University and other scientists.   My working day is usually 7.30 am to about 4.30 pm, but I never really stop working, even when I’m at home (and now that my children are grown up).