Present research activity

Gravitational wave detection
within the Institute of Gravitational Research. We work on the UK/German GEO600 gravitational wave detector, and with LIGO data in the LSC. See the pulsar upper limits group page , Rejean's page, and Matt's page.

Other/past research interests

Interplanetary scintillation (IPS)
See the IPS homepage at this site.  We hold the only long-term 'full-sky' g-map archive in the World, revealing large-scale density transients in the solar wind.		 Moon-based radio astronomy
How would you do very low frequency radio astronomy from the Moon?  See my report for ESA, and summary papers for ESTEC and CRIS98, and Yuki's page.
Low-frequency propagation in radio astronomy
Very low frequency radio astronomy is particularly sensitive to scattering in the interplanetary and intersellar mediums  (media?).  See how scattering effects the bKOM emission from Jupiter.		 The ALFA space-based radio astronomy mission
A MIDEX proposal to NASA for which I was a co-investigator.  It consists of a 16-element free-flying interferometer in distant retrograde orbit operating below 30 MHz.  See this overview of the mission, and its homepage.
Low-frequency pulsar astronomy
See the Second Cambridge Pulsar Survey  carried out with the 3.6 hectare array in Cambridge (the telescope which discovered the first pulsar).  See this pulsar ('CP1919') detected with the same antenna 26 years later.		 Low-frequency exoplanet searches
There are good reasons to believe that a Jupiter-like planet close to star will outshine the star at decametric wavelengths.  See a  test on the pulsar PSR0809+74 using the UTR-2 radio telescope in the Ukraine, and our radio exoplanet homepage.
The Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope
I was a member of the design and construction team for this instrument,  which made the first high resolution images of the cosmic microwave background.   See its  homepage at MRAO.		 Low-frequency long baseline interferometry
This was the subject of my PhD thesis.  A pdf copy (4.6MB) can be accessed here,  just for the record!
The 'CURSOR' radio navigation system
Peter Duffett-Smith and I developed the first (phase-based) version of this a few years ago.  Peter has developed it further into a time-based positioning system for cellular telephones. See the CPS homepage.		 The Radio Synthetic Array
This is a design study for a multi-beam broadband radio telescope using an array of 'smart' electrically short dipoles and a good deal of  DSP.   Any future developments will be in support of the Square Kilometre Array and LOFAR.


  see also...

The Cambridge Handbook of Physics Formulas
Published  by Cambridge University Press in August 2000.
  • my homepage for the book
  • Order from Amazon (UK) | (US) (go on -- you know you want to!)
    		•  The G2V Sundial
    My design for an easy-to-read sundial.  It was part of the  Glasgow Collection,  itself  part of Glasgow 1999,  and is being developed by Treehaus.