Curriculum Vitae

Postdoctoral Positions

European Space Agency Research Fellow

European Space Research and Technology Centre, Noordwijk, the Netherlands (September 2023 - )

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands (July 2022 - June 2023)
(Radboud Excellence Fellow July 2020 - June 2022)


Education

PhD in Astronomy

University of Warwick, Coventry, UK (October 2016 - June 2020)
Thesis: The Host Galaxies and Progenitors of Core-Collapse Gamma-Ray Bursts
Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Stanway

Physics with Astronomy MSci (1st, Hons)

University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK (September 2012 - July 2016)
Masters project: The Influence of Environment on Galaxy Evolution (supervisor: Prof Omar Almaini)
Third year project: Observing Minor Planets (supervisor: Dr Steven Bamford)


Teaching, Supervision & Outreach

LEAPS 2024

ESTEC coordinator for the Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Program for Summer Students (LEAPS) 2024.

PhD Defences

I was a member of the PhD defence panel for Dr Deepak Eappachen on 20/11/2023.

Undergraduate Physics Laboratory - Demonstrator

University of Warwick (October 2016 - May 2019)
Demonstrating first year undergraduate core physics laboratories, and first year electronics labs. Building on this teaching experience, I gained associate fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE).

Warwick Planetarium

University of Warwick (October 2016 - March 2020)
Over the course of my PhD, I was a frequent volunteer in the departmental outreach programme, taking an inflatable planetarium out to local schools and events on campus. More information about the Warwick planetarium can be found here.

Outreach at Radboud

I have contributed to online panel discussions, school visits and telescopes tours, in addition to giving a lecture as part of a public stargazing evening - more information can be found on the Radboud astrophysics website.

Press Releases

The studies described in Chrimes et al. (2023) and Chrimes et al. (2020) were publically disseminated via press releases (available here and here.


Conferences attended and talks given

Selected conference talks and colloquia:

ESA SCI Science Workshop (SSW) 16

Aranjuez, Spain (January 2024)
Presented "AT2023fhn (the Finch) and other animals".
You can find the slides here.

ASTRON/JIVE Colloquium

ASTRON/JIVE, Dwingeloo, the Netherlands (16 November 2023)
Gave a talk on "AT2023fhn (the Finch) & other animals".

European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2023

ICE Conference Centre, Krakow, Poland (July 2023)
Organised and chaired a session, "magnetars as central engines across the Universe", and presented a poster, "revealing the progenitors of Galactic supernovae with Gaia, Euclid and more".

Nederlandse Astronomenconferentie (NAC) 2023

Leeuwarden, the Netherlands (hosted by ASTRON, May 2023)
Gave a talk on "The Search for Galactic Supernova Runaways".

Supernova Remnants and their Progenitors

Chandra X-ray Centre, Cambridge, USA (hybrid meeting, August 2022)
Gave a virtual presentation on "Predictions for runaway stars in the era of precise proper motion surveys".

European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2022

Palacio de Congresos de Valencia, Valencia, Spain (hosted by the University of Valencia, June/July 2022)
Presented a poster on "New insights into the Galactic magnetar population".

Nederlandse Astronomenconferentie (NAC) 2022

Blankenberge, Belgium (hosted by Ghent University, May/June 2022)
Gave a talk on "New insights into the Galactic magnetar population."

IAU Symposium 363: Neutron Star Astrophysics at the Crossroads

Virtual (November/December 2021)
Gave a talk on "Where are the Magnetar Binaries?" - the slides are available here - and chaired a parallel session.

European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2021

Leiden University/Virtual (June/July 2021)
Gave a talk on "An Extragalactic View of the Milky Way Neutron Star Population - and the Implications for Fast Radio Bursts", available here.

The 30th Texas Relativistic Astrophysics Symposium

University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK (December 2019)
Gave a talk on "Gamma-Ray Burst Central Engines with Binary Population Synthesis Models".
The presentation is available here.

STSCI Spring Symposium - the Deaths and Afterlives of Stars

Space Telescope Science Insitute, Baltimore, USA (April 2019)
Gave a talk "Exploring Progenitor Pathways for Long Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts in Binary Stellar Evolution Models".
You can view the talk here.


Other Experience

Colloquium organiser

Radboud University (2022-2023)
I was an organiser of the Radboud astro weekly colloquium series across 2022 until summer 2023.

Observing and Observing Time Awarded

Time awarded on the following programmes: (i) a joint CXO-HST-VLA-Gemini programme, and time on the LCO network, to comprehensively observe a new FBOT, (ii) two VLT programmes in P108 and P110 to observe a magnetar wind nebula, and rapidly respond to an FRB alert respectively, (iiI) four INT programmes (2020A, 2022B, 2023A, 2023B) to observe host galaxy candidates of GW sources, (iv) Gemini spectroscopy of a candidate companion star to a magnetar. I am also a member of the STARGATE and ENGRAVE GRB and GW follow-up teams. Other experience includes a trip to aid in the comissioning of GOTO in November 2017.

Astronomy Secretary

University of Nottingham Physics Society (Physsoc) (March 2015 - March 2016)
As astronomy secretary, my primary role was to run regular training sessions for undergraduates on how to use the departmental telescope. The society won a gold STARS award from the Student's Union in 2015/2016.

Summer Research Project

University of Nottingham (July - August 2015)
A summer research project carried out in the cold atoms laboratries, designing and constructing circuitry for the rapid switch-on of an atom-trapping magnetic field. The project was funded by BP, and I went on to win a poster competition following completion of the project.