Next Big Names in Astronomy

A few weeks ago, the editor of Astronomy Now contacted me to talk about what life was like for a new researcher, just starting out on a career in astronomy.  Right now, at a time when research councils are reducing funding for science across the board, I think it’s a great idea to showcase some of the work that’s being done in the UK.  And it was very nice to be asked to be a part of this focus article!  The September issue of Astronomy Now is online now, and here’s the official blurb:

The Next Big Names in Astronomy

The future of astronomical research and space exploration lies with the young men and women at universities around the globe who are just starting out on a career in science. In this Focus, we meet five young post-docs who are already making names for themselves in their given fields. There's Dr Veronica Bray, who spends her days imaging the Moon with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or exploring craters on Jupiter's moons. Dr Leigh Fletcher at the University of Oxford has his hands in the pie of the biggest interplanetary spacecraft ever planned, the joint NASA/ESA Jupiter-Europa-Ganymede mission. Dr David Jess of Queen's University Belfast also has his attention on an object within our Solar System, at the very centre of it in fact: our Sun, and its mysteriously hot corona. Reaching out beyond our planetary neighbourhood, Dr Jim Geach of the University of Durham is seeking to answer the riddle of galaxy formation, while similarly Dr Ben Davies of the University of Leeds and the Rochester Institute of Technology is looking to solve the problem of how the most massive stars form.