I am currently a professor and current academic head of the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland. My general research concerns the lives and deaths of stars, from those in our own Galaxy to those in galaxies at the edge of the observable Universe. Particularly the effects of binary interactions on the lives of binary stars and how these change the appearance of galaxies, alter the rates of different types of supernovae and determine the rate of gravitational wave events.

I studied for my undergraduate degrees at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University (at Fitzwilliam College). Afterwards I completed my PhD at the Institute of Astronomy of Cambridge University. This was followed by postdoctoral research at Queen’s University Belfast and the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris before returning to Cambridge in 2007 to work. I moved to begin a lectureship at the University of Auckland in 2011.

My other interests include reading/watching sci-fi, computer games, cooking, photography and Tae Kwon Do.

---