Brian O'Halloran

Brian graduated in 1998 with a BSc Double Honours in Experimental Physics and Mathematics. The courses were excellent, though he did look enviously at those who'd follow on after us in terms of the superb new facilities being built that they'd come to enjoy, versus what he had at the time. Brian claims “ it was all part of the charm of the place! Plus, the students today will never know the pleasure of sitting by the old radiators in the Arts Block on a cold winter’s day!”
 
The five years Brian spent at Maynooth University were his formative years and he enjoyed them immensely, with his closest friends now being those he met back then. After Maynooth, he completed his PhD in Experimental Physics at UCD in 2003, working on studies of star forming galaxies. After post-doctoral positions in Ireland and the USA, Brian now works as a research associate at Imperial College London.  He is part of the technical team working on the European Space Agency astronomy satellite mission, Herschel, since 2008.  As a research post-doctoral scholar he is working on studies of starburst galaxies and associated black holes within such objects. Starburst galaxies are common throughout the Universe, and are the seats of massive bursts of star-formation that can dramatically alter the structure of the host galaxy and input large amounts of energy and mass out of their host galaxies via a superwind.

Brian’s years in Maynooth laid the groundwork for his career, something, he says he will be eternally grateful for.