I’m a research fellow in the Astrophysics & Space Research (ASR) Group at the University of Birmingham. My research interests include groups & clusters of galaxies, the intracluster medium, galaxy feedback and cosmology, as part of the extragalactic group. Before November 2005, for 3 years I was a research scientist in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Illinois.
I am a co-founder and organiser of the Birmingham R users Meeting (BRUM). I also organise the seminars for the ASR group.
You can find out more about my work in the research and key results pages.
R Project
I have written some web pages on using the R statistical environment package here. R is emerging as the industry standard for computing with data, with outstanding capabilities for data manipulation, analysis and visualization.
For more information on using R in astronomy, click on the image (left). For some more examples of plots created with R, including the code that created them, see the R gallery page. There are also pages on getting started with R, as well as some tutorials. 
R is really important to the point that it’s hard to overvalue it
- Google research scientist, quoted in a New York Times article on R (with associated blog articleAre you ready for R?)
What’s new
- 2012-04-07 : Abstract accepted for a talk at the useR! 2012 conference in Nashville, TN.
- 2012-03-20 : Gave a talk on “Why I love R” at the First meeting of the Birmingham R user group
- 2012-01-20 : Gave a seminar on
Using R for data visualisation in English Language Studies
to members of the English Department at the University of Birmingham - December 2011 : Co-founded the Birmingham R users Meeting (BRUM)
- 2011-11-14/15 : In Germany to serve on the groups and clusters of galaxies observing time allocation panel for XMM-Newton
- 2011-10-12 : Seminar at the University of Nottingham, titled
Cosmic feedback in galaxy groups and clusters
- 2011-09-15 : Gave a talk at the 13th Nottingham-Birmingham Extragalactic workshop, titled
Modelling mass profiles in galaxy groups and clusters using X-rays
: audio recording available in mp3 format (around 16 mins long) - 2011-08-18 : Gave a talk on
Studying galaxies in the nearby Universe, using R and ggplot
at the useR! 2011 conference.