Greetings!

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them.”

– Galileo Galilei

I’m an astrophysicist, and currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury. I work on finding, and understanding exploding stars called supernovae, as well as anything else that explodes in the night!

Exploding stars are incredible events that can give us amazing insights into the Universe. The death of stars can give us answers to the ultimate fate of the Universe, through cosmology, and key insights into fundamental processes in physics. My work is currently focused on studying supernovae that were observed by the Kepler and TESS space telescopes.

I’m always keen to learn and teach. I’ve given hundreds of talks and tours and love answering tricky questions! I run a YouTube channel where I go into details about new research and interview any animals I run into.

I grew up in Christchurch, New Zealand. In this country at the end of the world I got an Honours degree in Mathematical Physics at the University of Canterbury. During my undergraduate I conducted research into atmospheric physics with Prof. Adrian Mc’Donald and plasma physics and its application in fusion with Prof Matthew Hole, at the Australian National University. In the end my love for space won out and I completed a PhD in astrophysics at the Australian National University with Brad Tucker and Rob Sharp.