Brian Espey

Biography

Name: Brian Russell Espey Qualifications: B.A. (Mod) Experimental Physics, University of Dublin, 1983 (class II1) Ph.D. in Astronomy, University of Cambridge, 1990 Employment Nov 2001 - present Permanent Lecturer, Physics Department, University of Dublin Also: Research Associate, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies May 1998 - Oct 2001 Assistant Astronomer, European Space Agency, stationed at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA Also: adjunct Associate Research Scientist, Department of Physics & Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA Also: Academic Visitor, Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland Jan 1994 - Apr 1998 Associate Research Scientist, Department of Physics & Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA Also: adjunct Research Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Oct 1990 - Dec 1993 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Oct 1989 - Sep 1990 Royal Society European Science Exchange Fellow, Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands Oct 1983 - Dec 1985 Scientific Officer, Laser Division, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, UK Fellowships Oct 1989 - Sept 1990 Royal Society European Science Exchange (Leverhulme) Fellow - position held at Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands Research experience I am primarily an observer experienced with multiwavelength datasets, though also have experience with the tools required to analyse and model the data. I have worked with instruments covering the infrared through to the X-ray regions of the spectrum, and have an intimate knowledge of spectroscopy and diagnostics and tools (e.g., XSTAR, CLOUDY) as well as data reduction software (STARLINIK, IRAF, STSDAS etc.). In particular, I have worked on the instrument teams for the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope [HUT], and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph [STIS]) and have recently specialised in data from STIS and the Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). Although UV and far-UV astronomy may be reduced in scope in the next few years, the tools and techniques have application to the spectra reaching us from the high-redshift Universe, since they originate in the rest-frame UV and far-UV portions of the Universe. The relevance of this is due to the ionising nature of the photons from these portions of the spectrum - not only for the immediate neighbourhood of hot stars and active galactic nuclei, but also for the ionisation of the interstellar and intergalactic material, controlling star formation as well as what we can observe in the distant Universe. My current research centres on three main themes. Studies of mass loss from evolved stars in symbiotic star binaries, and the physical properties and abundance of gas in active galactic nuclei use emission and absorption line spectroscopic diagnostics as well as statistical methods. More recently, I have begun the application of machine intelligence to the interrogation of large databases (in particular the spectroscopic data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) in order to identify new samples for statistical, as well as more detailed, study.

Research Interest

Astronomy; Astrophysics; Cosmology; DATA MINING; DATA MINING SYSTEMS; DATABASE QUERY; DATABASE SAMPLING; Light Pollution; PLANETARY-NEBULAE; QUASARS; QUASARS, GENERAL; SPECTRA; SPECTRAL ANALYSIS; SPECTROSCOPY; SPECTRUM; STARS ; STARS, VARIABLES, OTHER