Department of Physics and Astronomy
Pevensey 2
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH
01273 (87)7483 (Office, Pevensey II 5A21a)
Fax 01273 678097
Since October 2008 I have been developing some software for the Herschel Space Observatory, which was launched in May 2009. My particular responsibility is to implement advanced methods of point source extraction for use on data from the PACS and SPIRE instruments on Herschel.
Between October 2004 and September 2008 I worked with Jon Loveday for a DPhil (PhD), A census of K-band galaxies from the UKIDSS Large Area Survey looking at hundreds of thousands of galaxies in near-infrared light. The main source of data for this project was a new survey, UKIDSS. (Jon Loveday and I were at the telescope in Hawaii when the first UKIDSS survey observations were made in May 2005.) I also used data from SDSS and 2MASS.
The main results included a K-band luminosity function from UKIDSS (with redshifts from SDSS), along with the bivariate brightness distribution (number of galaxies per unit volume as a function of luminosity and surface brightness). See this paper.
From 2002-2003 I studied for the new MSc in Cosmology at the University of Sussex. Around half of my work that year was spent on my project, Braneworld Inflation, supervised by Andrew Liddle. If you want to know more, see this paper (or here).
Prior to starting the MSc, I was at Jesus College, Cambridge, where I gained a BA in mathematics.
Cosmology is the study of the Universe, so I am now a master of the universe. In fact, I reckon (but am just about willing to be corrected) that I was the first person anywhere to have a masters degree entitled ‘cosmology’. This therefore made me indisputably the master of the universe for a year, as I’d wanted to be since I was very small.
Personal page: www.anthonysmith.me.uk.