Proleptic Lecturer                                                             

University of Nottingham         Oct 2021 – present

Director of Outreach

Research Interests: Foreground mitigation; Epoch of reionization; Cosmology; Radio interferometry and data reduction; Signal processing

My research is centred around research into the Era of the First Stars, contributing to its detection through membership of the LOFAR core EoR team and leading a focus group on foreground removal within the SKA working group. I supervise two PhD students.

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship               

University of Nottingham          Oct 2021 – present

Imperial College London           Oct 2018 – Oct 2021

Company Director of First Light Outreach Ltd                                      

I am a popular science author and I have written articles for The Guardian, The i Paper, The Big Issue and Astronomy Now. “First Light”, my first popular science book, was published by Bloomsbury in November 2020. I have now signed a deal for two further books. I enjoy public speaking at festivals, schools and on television and radio.

Notable Research Prizes and Major Grants

2023 University of Nottingham Policy Impact and Public Engagement Awards, Best Schools Initiative, shortlisted

2023 Royal Society Public Engagement Programme, £10,000

2020 Women of the Future Award, Shortlisted

2019 Imperial College Julia Higgins Medal for a significant contribution to the support of academic women.

2018 Royal Society Research Enhancement Award, £97,000

2018 Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (accepted), £635,000

2018 STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (declined)

2018 Royal Society Athena Medal and Prize, £5000

2017 L’Oréal Women in Science Fellowship, Highly Commended, £1000

Freelance Science Journalism

First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time, Bloomsbury Sigma, Out Now!

Recent Media Appearances

  • KERA Think Podcast (US national radio talk show), April 2023
  • BBC University Challenge, December 2022
  • Guardian Masterclasses: The First Billion Years, November 2022
  • BBC Sky at Night, November 2022
  • The Astroholic Explains Podcast, September 2022
  • Leonard Lopate at Large – WBAI Radio – NYC, June 2022
  • BBC Cornwall, July 2022
  • BBC Science Focus Instant Genius Podcast, May 2022
  • The Naked Scientists Podcast, May 2022
  • BBC Radio London, CERN Reactivation interview, April 2022
  • BBC Inside Science, April 2022, Seeing Ancient Stars 
  • BBC Radio Nottingham, April 2022, Seeing Ancient Stars
  • German ZDF TV, Women in STEM Special, interviewee, March 2022, 
  • BBC ‘Science’s Greatest Mysteries’ interviewee
  • BBC ‘Universe’/NOVA ‘Universe Revealed’, feature interviewee, Oct 2021
  • Guest on Radio 4 Today Programme, Harassment and Bullying in Science, July 2021
  • NPR Cool Science Podcast, May 2021
  • Royal Astronomical Society Supermassive Podcast, Feb 2021
  • Guest on BBC Radio 4 Inside Science discussing astronomy stories of the year
  • Guest on Irish TechNews, Future Proof, Times Radio, Dec 2020
  • The Times Podcast, Dec 2020

Recent Science Outreach Talks

Research Presentations

30+ invited talks, 4 invited reviews. Recent invited talks:

  • University of the Western Cape, South Africa, October 2022
  • University of Stanford, April 2022
  • University of Manchester Annual Schuster Lecture, February 2022
  • University of Nottingham, November 2021
  • University of Sussex, November 2021
  • ASTRON, Groningen, Netherlands, June 2021
  • University of Cambridge, March 2021
  • University of Oxford, February 2021