- Professor of Astrophysics, University of Cambridge
I am based in the UK, at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University. I am a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University.
My main research interest is Cosmology. I have a particular interest in whether the laws of Nature vary in space or time. My colleagues and I began work in this area in 1998 and in 1999 we published the first hints that alpha, the fine structure constant, might not be constant. Alpha represents the strength of the electromagnetic force. Since then we have published many papers on the subject, and have used a large amount of data from the Keck and VLT telescopes to study this in great detail.
The technical problems of making these measurements are substantial and push the best available data to their limits. The current status (2024) is that we do not have definitive evidence of spacetime variations. New instrumentation (notably ESPRESSO on the VLT) are now yielding far superior data, with interesting analyses underway. One of the main science drivers for the forthcoming €1.3 billion ELT is a search for varying laws of Nature, based on our 1998 Physical Review papers introducing the ``Many Multiplet method".
Experience
-
2023–presentProfessor of Astrophysics, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge
-
2017–presentLife Member, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
-
1991–2020Professor of Astrophysics, University of New South Wales
-
2016–2017Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge
-
1989–1991Senior Research Fellow, Royal Greenwich Observatory
-
1987–1989Research Fellow, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
Education
-
1986University of Cambridge, PhD in Astrophysics
-
1981University of Surrey, BSc Hons in Chemical Physics
Contact John for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Location: Cambridge, UK
- Article Feed
- ORCID
- Joined
