David Cullen

Biography

I am currently a senior lecturer in the Nuclear Physics Research group in the School of Physics and Astronomy. I obtained a first-class honours Physics degree from the Unviversity of Liverpool in 1988. In 1991 I obtained a Nuclear Physics PhD at the University of Liverpool. From 1991-1993 I was a research fellow at Oak Ridge National Lab., TN, USA and in 1993-1995 I was a teaching fellow at the University of Rochester, NY, USA. From 1995-1998 I was a research associated at the University of Liverpool. From 1998-2003 I was an EPSRC Advanced Fellow and since 2000 I have been at the University of Manchester. In 2008 I spent a sabbatical research year at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.

Research Interest

The STFC UK Nuclear Physics Strategy Document was recently written to outline the key remaining open questions. My research currently addresses three of the six key questions and has provided new information on; (1) The limits of nuclear existence (development of my isomer-tagging technique for exotic proton-rich nuclei in Finland); (2) How nuclear structure evolves at the highest angular momentum (the first observation of superdeformed bands and crossings in the mass 80 region); (3) New forms of collective motion ( recent Letter describing a new mechanism for generation of angular momentum in nuclei); and (4) Evidence for new symmetries in nuclei (very recent experimental development).