Research Fellow, St Andrews

After finishing my doctorate, I was a Research Fellow in St Andrews. Building upon my PhD, my post-doctoral work partially focused on solar coronal heating. My research, however, also broadened to include global modelling of the coronal magnetic field.

My position was funded by Consolidated Grants from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

For two academic years, I convened the solar & magnetospheric seminar series.

Doctoral work

In St Andrews, I undertook a PhD in Applied Mathematics, specializing in solar magneto­hydrodynamics (MHD). Throughout the course of my PhD, I was supervised by Prof. Alan Hood and Prof. Clare Parnell.

My doctoral research was chiefly concerned with the solar coronal heating problem, as intended in my original proposal. However, out of this work, I also developed a divergent interest in magnetic reconnection. Both interests are reflected in my thesis.

As a PhD student, I was a Carnegie Scholar. As such, I benefited from the support, financial and otherwise, of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, for which I remain grateful.

Undergraduate studies

As an undergraduate, I was privileged to study Mathematics in St Andrews. While doing so, my interests in magneto­hydrodynamics (MHD) and in solar physics began with my final-year Honours dissertation, which was supervised by Prof. Thomas Neukirch.

During that time, my first experience of academic research came when I took part in the School's Summer Undergraduate Research Programme. Then, I modelled interactions between hosts and parasitoids with Prof. Mark Chaplain FRS.