Durham Astronomy Consolidated Grant 2017-2020
Lead Research Organisation:
Durham University
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Astronomy attracts the imagination of the public to an extent that only very few other branches of science can match - this is due, in large part, to the fundamental nature of the questions it addresses: the origin of the Universe and our place within it. Astronomy is immediately accessible to every human by simply gazing up into the night sky to look the Moon, the planets and stars. Since the dawn of civilisation this has provoked questions about the origins of the Earth, stars and our Solar System, as well as the origins of the Universe. Over the past thirty years we have seen the emergence of a standard model in cosmology describing the constituents of our Universe, as well as a plausible explanation for the origin and evolution of all structure within it. According to this model, we live in a universe where at least two thirds of all mass-energy is now in the form of a dark energy field which is causing the Universe to expand at an ever increasing rate. About a quarter of the mass-energy is in the form of dark matter, most probably a new weakly interacting elementary particle yet to be detected on Earth (and hence of great interest to particle physicists). Only the remaining five percent of the mass-energy is in the form of ordinary, or baryonic, matter of which, at the present-day, only about a tenth is in stars and planets such as the Earth, and the rest resides mostly as gas in between galaxies. The structures formed by dark and baryonic matter are thought to have been seeded by quantum fluctuations imprinted in the density field of the Universe at the earliest instants of the Big Bang. These produced weak sound waves in the near-uniform primordial plasma that left observable imprints on the heat left over from the Big Bang, emitted when the Universe was only 400,000 years old (now visible as the Cosmic Microwave Background). These tiny ripples grew into the full richness of structures we see around us in the Universe today: galaxies, groups, clusters and larger-scale structures. It is this transformation from a near-uniform primordial soup to a cosmic web of structure that is the focus of our proposal. Our programme knits together cutting-edge theoretical research into the earliest phases of the Universe with theoretical and observational projects to determine the formation and evolution of structure in the Universe and to confront the predictions of our models with our latest observational results, while exploiting instrumentation developments pursued in Durham. We will explore astrophysical clues to the identity of the dark matter and the nature of the dark energy, focus on the evolution of galaxies back to the earliest times in the Universe and the influence which their environment has had on their properties. We will investigate the formation and evolution of black holes and their role in determining the structure and properties of galaxies and larger scale structures, using the latest instruments on ground-based observatories and Earth-orbiting satellites.
Planned Impact
We are proud of our track record at Durham of public engagement. The outreach initiative we started more than a decade ago has developed into a University-wide activity, which has, in turn, spawned the annual Celebrate Science festival in Durham (the most recent attended by almost 7,000 visitors). In our current programme we use a range of events, activities and techniques to engage with three key groups: a) the general public; b) school children; c) national and international audiences.
These activities include science festivals, Royal Society summer exhibition, public lectures, summer schools, master classes and school visits, which together reach 10-15,000 people a year across the region and nationally. To enhance the impact of our outreach we are developing demonstrations based on the science funded in our programme. These include an interactive illustration of gravitational lensing which makes innovative use of an Xbox kinect camera, laptop and large display screen to produce real time images of how people would lens their surroundings if their gravitational mass were greatly enhanced. We are continuing to develop our "Cosmic Universe" application for iPad and iPhone. This free app, which has been downloaded over 20,000 times from iTunes, allows the public to interact with the simulations of the Universe undertaken at Durham, providing a striking and effective way to visualise the size and structure of our Universe. We have plans for a more immersive experience using the Oculus rift. We produce high resolution movies of our cosmological structure formation simulations for public audiences and this year they formed the heart of the spectacular "World Machine" projection onto Durham Cathedral that was viewed by 150,000 people during the 4 day 2015 Durham Lumiere light festival (see front cover).
Our astronomical instrumentation projects include technology developments relevant to Earth Observation science (remote sensing) and we are continuing to explore the applications of compact integral field spectrometers to hyperspectral imaging. Our expertise in using adaptive optics for aberration correction has enabled the development of new techniques to image more deeply within human tissue samples whilst maintaining sub-micron resolution, whilst our experience in real-time data handling systems underpins our participation in an EPSRC CDT in Fusion Science & Technology. Finally we are investigating the commercialisation of muon tomography for carbon storage using techniques that we have developed using STFC, DECC and oil industry funding
As well as technology transfer, some of the methodology used in our theoretical and observational work has KE potential. For example, we are developing new statistical approaches to quantifying parameter uncertainties in complex computer models. This computationally efficient technique is appropriate for mapping the behaviour of models of climate change or oil extraction as well as galaxy formation models. Our work in this field has had significant impact in the statistical community, as well as attracting interest from the Bank of England as it may have application to the modelling of financial markets by regulators.
Finally, our broader research programme underpins the research development of a cohort of postgraduate students at Durham, providing them with training in specific and transferable skills. Our students are given top level training in high performance computing, including parallel programming, "Big Data" methods applied to our huge datasets and developing advanced visualization tools. Using these skills our former students have taken jobs in a range of industries from computer gaming to finance and genetics. Similarly, Physics students at Durham benefit through their participation in our research work via their 4th year MSci projects. Our technical training of these post/undergraduate students provides a pool of talented, skilled candidates to the UK economy.
These activities include science festivals, Royal Society summer exhibition, public lectures, summer schools, master classes and school visits, which together reach 10-15,000 people a year across the region and nationally. To enhance the impact of our outreach we are developing demonstrations based on the science funded in our programme. These include an interactive illustration of gravitational lensing which makes innovative use of an Xbox kinect camera, laptop and large display screen to produce real time images of how people would lens their surroundings if their gravitational mass were greatly enhanced. We are continuing to develop our "Cosmic Universe" application for iPad and iPhone. This free app, which has been downloaded over 20,000 times from iTunes, allows the public to interact with the simulations of the Universe undertaken at Durham, providing a striking and effective way to visualise the size and structure of our Universe. We have plans for a more immersive experience using the Oculus rift. We produce high resolution movies of our cosmological structure formation simulations for public audiences and this year they formed the heart of the spectacular "World Machine" projection onto Durham Cathedral that was viewed by 150,000 people during the 4 day 2015 Durham Lumiere light festival (see front cover).
Our astronomical instrumentation projects include technology developments relevant to Earth Observation science (remote sensing) and we are continuing to explore the applications of compact integral field spectrometers to hyperspectral imaging. Our expertise in using adaptive optics for aberration correction has enabled the development of new techniques to image more deeply within human tissue samples whilst maintaining sub-micron resolution, whilst our experience in real-time data handling systems underpins our participation in an EPSRC CDT in Fusion Science & Technology. Finally we are investigating the commercialisation of muon tomography for carbon storage using techniques that we have developed using STFC, DECC and oil industry funding
As well as technology transfer, some of the methodology used in our theoretical and observational work has KE potential. For example, we are developing new statistical approaches to quantifying parameter uncertainties in complex computer models. This computationally efficient technique is appropriate for mapping the behaviour of models of climate change or oil extraction as well as galaxy formation models. Our work in this field has had significant impact in the statistical community, as well as attracting interest from the Bank of England as it may have application to the modelling of financial markets by regulators.
Finally, our broader research programme underpins the research development of a cohort of postgraduate students at Durham, providing them with training in specific and transferable skills. Our students are given top level training in high performance computing, including parallel programming, "Big Data" methods applied to our huge datasets and developing advanced visualization tools. Using these skills our former students have taken jobs in a range of industries from computer gaming to finance and genetics. Similarly, Physics students at Durham benefit through their participation in our research work via their 4th year MSci projects. Our technical training of these post/undergraduate students provides a pool of talented, skilled candidates to the UK economy.
Publications
Luo B
(2016)
THE CHANDRA DEEP FIELD-SOUTH SURVEY: 7 MS SOURCE CATALOGS
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Ludlow AD
(2017)
Mass-Discrepancy Acceleration Relation: A Natural Outcome of Galaxy Formation in Cold Dark Matter Halos.
in Physical review letters
Ludlow A
(2019)
Numerical convergence of simulations of galaxy formation: the abundance and internal structure of cold dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lucey J
(2018)
A New Quadruple-image Gravitational Lens in an Edge-on Disk Galaxy at z = 0.0956
in Research Notes of the AAS
Lucey J
(2018)
Serendipitous discovery of quadruply imaged quasars: two diamonds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lovell M
(2019)
The signal of decaying dark matter with hydrodynamical simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lovell M
(2017)
Addressing the too big to fail problem with baryon physics and sterile neutrino dark matter
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lovell M
(2020)
Local group star formation in warm and self-interacting dark matter cosmologies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lovell M
(2019)
Simulating the Dark Matter Decay Signal from the Perseus Galaxy Cluster
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lovell M
(2017)
Properties of Local Group galaxies in hydrodynamical simulations of sterile neutrino dark matter cosmologies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lovell J
(2017)
A compact, smart Langmuir Probe control module for MAST-Upgrade
in Journal of Instrumentation
Loveday J
(2018)
Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): small-scale anisotropic galaxy clustering and the pairwise velocity dispersion of galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Louarn P
(2017)
Generation of the Jovian hectometric radiation: First lessons from Juno
in Geophysical Research Letters
Lotfi R
(2022)
Viable supply chain with vendor-managed inventory approach by considering blockchain, risk and robustness.
in Annals of operations research
Lofthouse E
(2020)
MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) - I: Survey design and the environment of a near pristine gas cloud at z ˜ 3.5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lloyd S
(2019)
Constraining the axion mass through gamma-ray observations of pulsars
in Physical Review D
Lloyd S
(2021)
Axion constraints from quiescent soft gamma-ray emission from magnetars
in Physical Review D
Llinares C
(2019)
Detecting Coupled Domain Walls in Laboratory Experiments.
in Physical review letters
Llinares C
(2019)
Simulation techniques for modified gravity
in International Journal of Modern Physics D
Llinares C
(2020)
Non-linear phenomenology of disformally coupled quintessence
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Llinares C
(2018)
Testing modified gravity with globular clusters: the case of NGC 2419
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Liu T
(2017)
X-Ray Spectral Analyses of AGNs from the 7Ms Chandra Deep Field-South Survey: The Distribution, Variability, and Evolutions of AGN Obscuration
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Liu R
(2019)
A machine-learning approach for identifying the counterparts of submillimetre galaxies and applications to the GOODS-North field
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lindsey N
(2017)
Fiber-Optic Network Observations of Earthquake Wavefields
in Geophysical Research Letters
Lim C
(2020)
SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging EAO Survey (Studies). III. Multiwavelength Properties, Luminosity Functions, and Preliminary Source Catalog of 450 µ m Selected Galaxies
in The Astrophysical Journal
Libeskind N
(2018)
Tracing the cosmic web
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Liao S
(2017)
The segregation of baryons and dark matter during halo assembly
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Liao S
(2019)
Ultra-diffuse galaxies in the Auriga simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Li Y
(2022)
Non-linear reconstruction of features in the primordial power spectrum from large-scale structure
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Li R
(2019)
SDSS-IV MaNGA: the inner density slopes of nearby galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Li R
(2017)
Projection effects in the strong lensing study of subhaloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Li B
(2018)
Galaxy-galaxy weak gravitational lensing in f(R) gravity
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Li B
(2019)
Approximation methods in modified gravity models
in International Journal of Modern Physics D
Li B
(2020)
Measuring the baryon acoustic oscillation peak position with different galaxy selections
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Levi M
(2018)
Design and production of the DESI fibre cables
Leo M
(2018)
A new smooth- k space filter approach to calculate halo abundances
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Leo M
(2018)
Nonlinear growth of structure in cosmologies with damped matter fluctuations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Leo M
(2017)
The effect of thermal velocities on structure formation in N-body simulations of warm dark matter
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Leo M
(2018)
N-body simulations of structure formation in thermal inflation cosmologies
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Leo M
(2019)
High-redshift test of gravity using enhanced growth of small structures probed by the neutral hydrogen distribution
in Physical Review D
Lee J
(2017)
The Effect of Modified Gravity on the Odds of the Bound Violations of the Turn-around Radii
in The Astrophysical Journal
Le Bret T
(2017)
Particle tagging and its implications for stellar population dynamics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lansbury G
(2017)
The NuSTAR Serendipitous Survey: The 40-month Catalog and the Properties of the Distant High-energy X-Ray Source Population
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lansbury G
(2017)
The NuSTAR Serendipitous Survey: Hunting for the Most Extreme Obscured AGN at >10 keV
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lansbury G
(2018)
Storm in a Teacup: X-Ray View of an Obscured Quasar and Superbubble
in The Astrophysical Journal
Lang P
(2019)
Revealing the Stellar Mass and Dust Distributions of Submillimeter Galaxies at Redshift 2
in The Astrophysical Journal
Landt H
(2019)
The first spectroscopic dust reverberation programme on active galactic nuclei: the torus in NGC 5548
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Landt H
(2017)
On the black hole mass of the ?-ray emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy 1H 0323+342
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Landt H
(2023)
A Complex Dust Morphology in the High-luminosity AGN Mrk 876
in The Astrophysical Journal
| Description | The research explored in this consolidated grant is varied and carried out by 29 academic members of staff, with associated researchers. Amongst the most significant key findings across the duration of the grant were: (1) prediction from simulations that massive hot dark-matter halos suppress the formation of stars and trigger the growth of supermassive black holes; (2) prediction from simulations that the distribution of dark-matter sub structures in our own Milky Way galaxy can help identify the nature of dark matter; (3) measurements of how changes in the rate of supermassive black-hole growth impact their observed properties; (4) the characterisation of pulsations from ultra-luminous X-ray sources, identified to be due to accretion onto neutron stars, the extreme degenerate stellar core left following a supernova explosion; (5) the development of physically motivated models for the growth of supermassive black holes and their expected observed properties; (6) the structure and morphology of gas in the most rapidly forming galaxies: rings and bars are seen as found for nearby galaxies; (7) the role that angular momentum in galaxies has on their observed properties and their changes across half the age of the universe. |
| Exploitation Route | Our results are driving the development of new facilities and these in turn will be used to test our results and lead to new avenues for research, both ourselves and other international groups. |
| Sectors | Education,Other |
| URL | http://astro.dur.ac.uk |
| Description | The research in our group is focused on studying the origin and evolution of the contents of the Universe. Consequently, our primary societal impact is through developing the general public's appreciation of the complexity and variety of the Universe around them. Our programme of science engagement is undertaken jointly with the Institute for Computational Cosmology and the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, both at Durham and with which we have strong links, including a number of joint staff appointments. The impact of our programme is enhanced considerably by our outreach and schools engagement activities which are spearheaded by Dr Lorraine Coghill, our Ogden Trust science outreach and engagement specialist. We deliver a wide range of talks, planetarium shows, hands-on science sessions, and art-science sessions to schools in the North East and local astronomical societies. These activities engage thousands of local school children in the latest developments in astronomy and cosmology to help inspire the next generation of scientists. Some of our largest science engagement activities are: - The Durham University Schools Science Festival which was attended by ~850 local school children. - The annual Durham Celebrate Science festival on palace green beside Durham cathedral. It is attended by ~7000 visitors/year - The bi-annual Durham Lumiere, where we show movies of our computational simulations, projected on buildings (including Durham cathedral). Durham Lumber is a city-wide several-day exhibition mixture of art and science - it is always sold out! We also have public engagement through our links with the Kielder Observatory (based in the Dark Skies reserve in the National Forest) which further widen the reach of our outreach activities. Some of our academic staff members sit on the Kielder Observatory board. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Education,Other |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | Data Intensive Science Translation Fellow |
| Amount | £276,889 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/R005516/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | DiRAC Bridging Grant 2019 |
| Amount | £311,755 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/T001372/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2019 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | DiRAC-2 Datacentric support grant |
| Amount | £365,964 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/M007006/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2014 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Description | DiRAC-2.5 DC - Operations 2017-2020 |
| Amount | £512,169 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/R000832/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2017 |
| End | 03/2020 |
| Description | DiRAC: Memory Intensive 2.5x |
| Amount | £2,120,279 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/R002371/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2017 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Description | Dirac-3 Operations 2019-2022- Durham |
| Amount | £2,232,863 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/S003908/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2019 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Dirac-3 Operations 2019-2022- Durham |
| Amount | £1,748,945 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/V002376/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2019 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | ERC Advanced Grant |
| Amount | € 2,050,275 (EUR) |
| Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 01/2013 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Description | PATT Linked Grant for the Durham Astrophysics Group 2016-18 |
| Amount | £41,301 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/P001157/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2017 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Description | PATT Linked Grant for the Durham Astrophysics Group 2019-20 |
| Amount | £30,347 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/S001557/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2019 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | STFC Durham Physics 2017 DTP |
| Amount | £735,070 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/R504725/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 09/2021 |
| Description | UK Programme for the European Extremely Large Telescope |
| Amount | £1,467,773 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/N002660/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2015 |
| End | 03/2019 |
| Description | UK Programme for the European Extremely Large Telescope - Additional Support 17/18 |
| Amount | £182,957 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/P003095/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2017 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Description | Using Cosmic Beasts to Uncover the Nature of Dark Matter |
| Amount | £743,842 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | MR/S017216/1 |
| Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2019 |
| End | 04/2023 |
| Description | Your Place in the Universe |
| Amount | £14,484 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/T00567X/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2020 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Zooming in on feedback in active galaxies: the first high-resolution radio survey |
| Amount | £992,150 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | MR/T042842/1 |
| Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2020 |
| End | 09/2024 |
| Description | LOFAR radio telescope |
| Organisation | LOFAR |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Development of the processing and reduction of international long-baseline array data |
| Collaborator Contribution | Priority access to the LOFAR radio data |
| Impact | Publications on the long-baseline LOFAR results will be coming out very soon |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | SKA radio telescope |
| Organisation | SKA Square Kilometre Array |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Scientific and technical development through membership of the SKA science committee and member of very long baseline interferometry and extragalactic continuum working groups. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Scientific planning and development. |
| Impact | none |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Astronomical society talks (~5/year) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Giving presentations on specialist topics to astronomical societies: typically about 5/year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022 |
| Description | Celebrate Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Celebrate Science is an annual Durham University science festival. It runs for approximately 3 days and attracts about 7000 visitors, many of them school children and their parents: it is scheduled for a half-term week. Each year ~30 members of the astronomy group participate to the Celebrate Science festival. They engage with visitors through exhibits including many created in the astronomy group such as our "Galaxy Maker" and "Gravitational Lens" simulators. Unfortunately, Celebrate Science was cancelled in 2020 due to the covid pandemic and was on line in 2021. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2022 |
| URL | https://www.dur.ac.uk/celebrate.science/ |
| Description | Durham University Schools' Science Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | The school's science festival targets year 9 and 10 students with the objective of enthusing them in STEM subjects. The astronomy-related activities are focused on understanding the nature of light and how it is used to understand the physics of astronomical objects. The activities including making spectroscopes using readily available materials. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2022 |
| URL | https://www.dur.ac.uk/science.outreach/sciencefestival/ |
| Description | General public talks including Pint of Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presenting and discussing ideas in astronomy and cosmology to the general public including the popular "Pint of Science" series of talks organised in a local pubs. Typically about 10 talks/year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022 |
| Description | Great Debate: Science, Rationality, and Religion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Including debates lead by a speaker representing each side of the argument. The speakers included the Bishop of Durham and academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.dur.ac.uk/ias/events/events_listings/?eventno=33785 |
| Description | Locomotion dark skies event with Tim Peakes Spacecraft |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A guided tour of the Universe |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.locomotion.org.uk/dark-sky-sessions/ |
| Description | Planetarium visits (~20/year) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Planetarium shows to schoolchildren, social clubs (e.g., Brownies), and astronomical societies in the North East region. Shows include an understanding of objects in the night sky, the constellations, and basic physics. An excellent introduction to the excitement of astronomy and physics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.dur.ac.uk/celebrate.science/ |
| Description | Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Summer Science Exhibition is run by the Royal Society and is held in London. Over 14,000 members of the public including 2000 school children visit the Summer Science Exhibition each year. Many more are engaged through media coverage on TV and online. Exhibiting at the Royal Society not only engages the school children and the general public in STEM subjects, it also has the potential to influence policy makers and to engage potential funders. We estimate we had direct contact with over 3000 visitors for our astronomy and cosmology exhibits. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2022 |
| Description | School visits to enthuse students about STEM subjects (~10/year) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | School visits to discuss astronomy to enthuse them in STEM-related subjects. Typically ~10 visits per year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022 |
| Description | Talking Science at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Lecture on black holes: fact, fiction, or fantasy |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.stfc.ac.uk/public-engagement/activities-for-the-public/visit-the-rutherford-appleton-labo... |
| Description | Twitter account |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Twitter account with currently over 1400 followers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/DarkerMatters |