Outreach

Talks and workshops

I am happy to give astronomy talks at local (infant/junior/senior) schools.

Events

2014: Stewart Campbell (from the Department of Music), I co-curated a 2014 Festival of the Mind event on 18 September 2014 entitled Festival of the Mind: Sounds of the Cosmos that involved two live performances of the Planets Suite by Sheffield Rep Orchestra interweaved with astronomy talks and visuals provided by Human Studio, plus astronomy-themed activities for local schools and the STFC 'Seeing the Universe in all its light' roadshow.

2015: Doc/Fest 2015 re-commissioned Sounds of the Cosmos, involving a performance of Doc/Fest: Sounds of the Cosmos at the Crucible Theatre on 9 June 2015. Another performance of Latitude: Sounds of the Cosmos took place on 18 July 2015 on the film and Music stage at Latitude Festival.

2022: Together with composer Leo Mercer, VR artist Rosie Summers, performer Aarian Mehrabani and academic colleagues from within the Department I was involved in a 2022 Festival of the Mind performance in the Spiegeltent on 24 September 2022 entitled 'A Star is Born: An Astrophysics and VR Musical'.

2024: A Virtual Voyage Through the Milky Way previewed during the 2024 Festival of the Mind, involving a 5 minute mixed reality activity produced in collaboration with Sheffield's Human Studio

Here is the Solar System film from Sounds of the Cosmos. Other films are available via iTunes U.

TV programmes

The following programmes have featured my research:

Contributor to Cosmic Front (NHK, Japan) programme about 'Number ones' in astronomy (June 2014).
Contributor to Cosmic Front (NHK, Japan) programme about the Magellanic Clouds, from 12 April 2012.
Episode of BBC's Sky at Night was devoted to 'Monster Stars' in August 2010.

Videos

A Deep Sky Videos film about the most massive stars in the Local universe:

I have contributed to many other films on the Deep Sky Videos channel:

Interviews

I have been interviewed in the following webcasts and publications:

Interview about hypergiant stars in issue 10 of All About Space.
February 2014 interview about monsters stars for The Jodcast.
Shooting for the stars from Exposed Magazine (December 2011).
Profile from Astronomy and Geophysics, April 2011. PDF (119KB)
Temperamental monsters – Massive stars may slim down in eruptive bursts in Science News Online (September 2006).

Finally, I have served as a consultant on the following book: 'Solar System (Factometer)' by Gaby Goldsack (awaiting publication by Cowley Robinson). Spanish translation: 'El sistema solar (Datometer)' (2009, Ediciones SM).