Visitors grant for the Astrophysics Group at Sheffield

We wish to apply for a PPARC visitors grant to support the research programmes of the five current staff members in the Astrophysics Group at Sheffield: Paul Crowther (hot stars, star formation), Richard de Grijs (young star clusters in interacting and starburst galaxies), Vik Dhillon (accretion disks, binary stars, astronomical instrumentation), David Hughes (comets and minor bodies of the solar system), and Clive Tadhunter (radio galaxies, AGN and quasars). In addition, when this grant will come into effect, we will have appointed a new member of staff, whose research we also need to support to similar extent (interviews taking place in June 2005). The visitors will provide essential input to the various, internationally competitive research projects currently underway at Sheffield; they will also play a key role in the scientific life of the department.