Profile

I work in solar and stellar physics – more specifically regarding acoustic (sound) wave propagation inside stars like the Sun.  To give this field of work its full name, you could say I am a helioseismologist – but that is quite a mouthful so let’s stick with astrophysicist!  We think of the Sun as a constant unchanging beacon of light in the sky – but in reality it is constantly oscillating (imagine if the whole Earth’s surface was always shaking like an earthquake, woah!).  Massive explosions on the Sun called Solar Flares often occur, blasting a huge amount of energy out into space.  Some of this energy is directed inwards, causing a disturbance on the Sun’s surface that we call a sun-quake.  I work to further understand how these sun-quakes occur, as well as look into if their presence can be seen on other stars through telescopes like kepler.

Depending on what is happening I may be working at my office or half way across the country at a conference!  Going on a typical day, I start with a strong cup of coffee and bit of TV (unfortunately there is nothing on but the news when I wake up!).  At around 9am I arrive at the university I work at by bike.  I like to cycle in partly for the exercise, but mostly because it wakes me up!  I’ll likely have a day ahead of me working in my office on my computer.  I will likely spend a lot of time working on some code or running it on our universities super-computer – and yes, I might be sat on Facebook when waiting at times…  Come lunch time I like a good productivity kick so I settle for a refreshing Costa.  This is a good time to catch up with my fellow office sharing researchers.  Afternoons can be quite similar, working with the results of my codes and analysing solar and stellar data.  To keep me working in the afternoons I like to plug in my headphones and blast away some music – sometimes I find myself embarrassingly tapping or humming along!  Depending on my workload, I head home about 5-6pm.  My evenings may be spent at a pub quiz, playing a video game or in front of the TV with my partner and two guinea pigs!