Peter Coles

Biography

He was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, where He did Natural Sciences, specialising in Theoretical Physics. He moved to Sussex in 1985 and did a DPhil in Theoretical Astronomy under the supervision of Professor John D. Barrow, the famous writer. He stayed on at Sussex for two years as a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant (PDRA), then moved to Queen Mary & Westfield College (University of London) in 1990 to take up a temporary lectureship. He was awarded a Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) Advanced Fellowship in 1993, which He held there until 1998. Meanwhile He was appointed Lecturer-in-waiting in 1994 and then promoted to Reader-in-waiting in 1997. He moved to Nottingham in 1999 to become Professor of Astrophysics and help set up a new astronomy group there. In July 2007 He moved to Cardiff to take up a Chair in Theoretical Astrophysic. He moved to the University of Sussex in 2013 to be Head of the School of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, but returned to Cardiff in 2016 to a position joint between the School of Physics & Astronomy and the Data Innovation Research Institute.

Research Interest

His primary research interest is in cosmology and the large-scale structure of the Universe. He works on theoretical aspects of this problem, with an emphasis on statistical techniques to test models of structure formation against observations. His work encompasses both galaxy clustering and the Cosmic Microwave Background.He is also interested in exotic cosmological models, such as those involving magnetic fields or global asymmetries or non-Gaussian fluctuations, and in analytic techniques for studing the growth of large-scale structure in the expanding Universe. Alongside this He has a longstanding interest in mathematical probability and statistics and their applications in physics and astronomy.