Maynooth University Faculty of Science & Engineering

I am a theoretical astrophysicist and my research is in the area of cosmology and the large-scale structure of the Universe.  For further details about my research, click the `Research' tab.

I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in England and educated at its Royal Grammar School. After that I went to Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge to study Natural Sciences, eventually specializing in Theoretical Physics. After graduation I started a doctorate in the Astronomy Centre at the University of Sussex under the supervision of Prof. John D  Barrow. After completing my DPhil in 1988, I stayed for two years in Sussex as a postdoctoral research fellow. I then moved to London, where I held a number of positions in the School of Mathematical Sciences at what is now Queen Mary, University of London. I was awarded an SERC Advanced Fellowship in 1993 which I held for five years during which I was promoted to the position of Reader.

In 1998 I was appointed Professor of Astrophysics in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nottingham, a position I took up on 1st January 1999. I helped set up an Astronomy group there, and stayed about eight years in Nottingham until, in 2007, I moved to a position as Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University. From February 2013 until the end of July 2016 I was Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex  In 2016 I returned to Cardiff in a part-time capacity split between the School of Physics & Astronomy and the Data Innovation Research Institute. In 2017 decided to move to Ireland to take up my current position at Maynooth.