Date of Birth: **th November 1963 Nationality: British Contact Details:
Home:
Work:
*** ******,
Institute for Computational Cosmology,
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Department of Physics,
**** *********,
South Road,
Durham,
Durham,
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DH1 3LE.
tel: (0191) 33-43593
email: Shaun.Cole*AT*durham.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Employment
Oct 2005
—
: Department of Physics, Durham. Professor in Physics.
Oct 2001 — Oct 2005: Department of Physics, Durham.
Reader in Physics.
Oct 1994 — Oct 2001: Department of Physics, Durham.
PPARC Advanced Fellow.
Oct 1991 — Oct 1994: Department of Physics, Durham.
Temporary Lecturer.
Nov 1989 — Oct 1991: Department of Astronomy, Berkeley.
Theoretical Astrophysics Center postdoctoral fellow.
Education
Clare College, Cambridge.
Oct 1989: Doctor of Philosophy in Astrophysics,
``Evolution of Large Scale Structure and Galaxy Formation''
Research performed at:
Oct 1988 — Oct 1989: Department of Astrophysics, Oxford.
Oct 1986 — Sep 1988: Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge.
Oct 1985 — Jun 1986:
Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics (Part III of the
Mathematics Tripos) Passed with Distinction.
Jesus College, Oxford.
Oct 1982 — Jun 1985: Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in
Physics
First Class Honours
Oct 1982 — Jun 1983: Moderations in Physics
First Class Honours
1983— 85: College Scholarship
1982— 83: College Exhibitioner
Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, Lancashire.
Sep 1975 — Jun 1982: 5 A-levels ( 4 at grade A) and 11
O-levels
Boden Prize for Mathematics 1982
Honoratorium Nomina 1982
Other Employment
1988— 89: Tutor in Mathematics for Physics for Jesus College,
Oxford.
1988— 89: Tutor in Astrophysics for Physics for Wadham and
University Colleges, Oxford.
1986— 88: Supervisor in Physics for Natural Sciences for Clare
College, Cambridge.
1986 (Jul— Oct): Assistant Oiler and Greaser, Nelson's Acetate,
Lancaster.
1983 (Jul— Oct): Assistant Manager, Seacroft Camping Park,
Cromer, Norfolk.
Academic Activities
1992—2001: Supervisor of PhD students: Gillian Wilson,
Vincent Eke, Steve Hatton,
Andrew Benson, Peder Norberg, John Helly, Noam Libeskind and Geriant
Harker.
1999—2002: Lecturer for 3rd year undergraduate course,
"Particles and Cosmology"
2003—2004: Lecturer for 3rd year undergraduate course,
"Cosmology"
2003—2004: Organiser of 3rd year undergraduate General Problems
classes
2004—2004: Lecturer for 2nd year undergraduate course,
"Mathematical Methods for Physics, PartII"
2000—2004: Library representative
1998—2004: Supervisor of 4th year undergraduate projects.
1992—2001: Contributor to taught course given to first year
astronomy PhD students.
1998—2001: Tutor of 2nd year undergraduates.
1991—1993 and 1995—1999: Tutor of 3rd year undergraduates.
1996—1999: Astronomy member of the postgraduate committee and
responsibility for astronomy postgraduate admissions
1996—1999: Secretary of postgraduate committee
1995—1999: Organiser of weekly series of informal astronomy
lunchtime talks.
Research Interests
Galaxy Formation:
I continue to be active in the now very popular "semi-analytic"
approach
to modelling galaxy formation that I helped pioneer. This approach
combines
N-body or Monte-Carlo methods of following the gravitational evolution
of structure in the dominant dark matter component of the universe with
simplified analytic prescriptions for gas dynamics, star formation,
stellar feedback and stellar populations. It therefore enables galaxy
formation to be studied within a framework that is consistent with our
current understanding of the large scale evolution of the universe.
The topics that are currently the focus of my work in this area are:
Galaxy evolution at high redshift.
We are seeking to understand the exciting newly discovered populations
of Lyman break galaxies at z=3 and the sub-mm sources discovered using
SCUBA within a single consistent picture of galaxy formation.
The Dependence of Galaxy Clustering on galaxy
properties.
The semi-analytic models produce a very direct relation between the
properties of the forming galaxies and the surrounding distribution of
dark matter. Thus these models make very strong predictions for galaxy
clustering. For typical bright galaxies these predictions have proved
to be in very good agreement with observations. The challenge now is to
explore how clustering properties in the model are sensitive to galaxy
properties and confront such predictions with new observations. In this
way we will learn how the process of galaxy formation is physically
linked to environment.
Large Scale Structure:
Currently my main interests in this field lie with the 2dF Galaxy
Redshift survey (2dFGRS). I am one of the approximately 20 founder team
members
of this anglo-australian collaboration. The survey has recently
completed its goal of measuring the redshifts, and hence spatial
positions, of 230,000 galaxies. The survey is more than an order
of magnitude larger than all previous surveys and takes observational
cosmology into a new high precision era.
My particular interests are:
The power spectrum of galaxy clustering on large
scales.
The survey is sufficiently large that we can probe the scales that
overlap with those probed by very different methods in maps of the
Cosmic Microwave Background. Comparison of the two measurement
The distortion of galaxy clustering in redshift space
caused by galaxy peculiar velocities.
Galaxies have velocities relative to the Hubble flow that are a result
of gravitational instability. Measurement of the distortion these cause
to the pattern of galaxy clustering enables constraints to be put on
the overall mass content of the universe.
The dependence galaxy clustering on galaxy properties.
The 2dFGRS will be the first survey large enough to accurate
measurements of clustering for different galaxy subsets. Such
information is of particular interest to current models of galaxy
formation (see above).
Galaxy luminosity functions in optical and infra-red
bands.
These basic statistical properties are important constraints on galaxy
formation models.