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GROUP NEWS
March-April 2023
At the end of April CosmoCube participated in a UK Space Mission Incubator in order to prepare for its next development phase
The UK SKA Science Regional Centre, which started its activities earlier this year with key participation from Cavendish Radio Cosmology researchers, has been ramping up activities to develop interoperable digital research infrastructure which will enable astronomers to access SKAO data & explore the universe
The UK SKA Science Regional Centre, which started its activities earlier this year with key participation from Cavendish Radio Cosmology researchers, has been ramping up activities to develop interoperable digital research infrastructure which will enable astronomers to access SKAO data & explore the universe
January-February 2023
Eloy de Lera Acedo awarded ERC Consolidator Grant
John Cumner has now become a PDRA in the group, congratulations!
We also welcome Yuchen Liu as our latest PhD student!
Cavendish Radio Cosmology researchers organised and taught courses in the SARAO Workshop dedicated to Global 21cm Astronomy Experiments and Technology
John Cumner has now become a PDRA in the group, congratulations!
We also welcome Yuchen Liu as our latest PhD student!
Cavendish Radio Cosmology researchers organised and taught courses in the SARAO Workshop dedicated to Global 21cm Astronomy Experiments and Technology
Group's short bios and face gallery
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Dr Eloy
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My research, funded by STFC, is on 21-cm cosmology: Dark Ages, Cosmic Dawn, Epoch of Reionization. I lead the Cavendish Radio Cosmology research group at Cavendish Astrophysics and I am the initiator and PI of the REACH experiment. I am also involved in other projects for astronomy (e.g. SKA, HERA, CosmoCube) and ultra fast digital communications and EM metrology, with a focus on applications of astronomy-inspired technology in society. I am an Associate Professor and a STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK. Recently I have been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project REACH_21.
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Dr Jeremy Coles
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I have a background in Particle Physics where I explored R-parity violations in supersymmetry but have also undertaken projects in nucleosynthesis modelling and tests of higher-dimensional cosmological models. I have now spent many years developing and running international research infrastructure projects with a focus on distributed computing. I moved into SKA work to coordinate the pre-construction Science Data Processor (SDP) design consortium. Since then I have taken on a number of roles from running the team doing simulations and modelling through to most recently being the Release Train Engineer for SKA Regional Centre (SRC) activities.
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Dr Bojan Nikolic
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Under construction.
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Dr Mark Ashdown
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Under construction.
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Mr Yuchen Liu
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I work on the development of the Bayesian data pipeline for the sky-averaged 21-cm cosmology experiment REACH. In particular, I focus on the stage of foreground mitigation in the 21-cm signal detection. My research interests in general span from computational aspects to observations of 21-cm cosmology. Before starting the PhD, I had research experience in understanding the impact of reionization on the 1D power spectrum of Lyman-alpha forest. The work aimed to avoid computationally expensive simulations to marginalize the reionization over cosmological information by using an analytic prescription.
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Mr Joe
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My work at the Cavendish, funded by the STFC, focuses on Bayesian analysis and theory 21cm cosmology for the investigation of the epoch of reionisation. Prior to starting my PhD, I completed an integrated master’s degree at UCL, where my thesis focused on comparing dust mapping methods in nearby galaxies to assess where and when the methods would disagree with one another.
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Mr Jiten Dhandha
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I am an astrophysics graduate from the University of Manchester, starting my PhD under the funding of the Boustany Foundation and Cambridge Trust at the Institute of Astronomy. I have some past experience in modeling the 21cm global signal as it relates to CMB spectral distortions in exotic physics scenarios, and also with 3D hydrodynamical simulations of star-forming molecular clouds. As part of my PhD, I intend to work on improving simulations of the 21cm signal, particularly the re-ionization model, and how it could be improved with suggestions from the new JWST results.
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Mr Kaan
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I received my master’s degree in CDT Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems program joint between UCL and Cambridge. My PhD project is funded by Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US. I am currently working on the lander telescope project, LuSEE-Night, which aims to unveil the dark ages by detecting red shifted 21-cm hydrogen signal lying around 17MHz from the far side of the moon. The instrumentation is being designed and built in collaboration with NASA and LBNL. I am working on the spectrometer, including the RF front-end design. I will focus on the calibration techniques to overcome the challenges of detecting the signal buried in the galactic foreground.
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Mr Christian Kirkham
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My work, funded by STFC, is on bayesian data analysis for 21-cm cosmology experiments, like REACH. Before coming to Cambridge, I was at Durham University using Gaia data to investigate the systematic bias in DR3 parallaxes and its effect of the calibration of the cosmological distance ladder. A secondary investigation involved using main-sequence fitting to UBV photometry of open cluster stars to determine whether the standard reddening law needs to be modified to include a distance dependence.
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Mr Samuel Leeney
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I am a Physics graduate from The University of Nottingham, with an experience in medical imaging using convolutional neural networks. My past research, which is currently being implemented at NU Hospital, used a multimodal approach. Autofluorescence images are analysed to provide sampling points for Raman spectra analysis, providing a highly sensitive diagnosis on malignant tissue in intra-operative timeframes. For REACH, I will be working on the development of the data analysis pipeline using Bayesian inference via the Polychord nested sampling algorithm.
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Mr Simon Pochinda
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I am a PhD student funded by the Cambridge Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust and the Cambridge STFC CDT in Data Intensive Science. I will be focusing on utilising radio data from REACH/HERA along with upcoming data from the James Webb Space Telescope to provide joint constraints on cosmological parameters from the epoch of re-ionization. Previous research includes my MSc thesis from the University of Copenhagen. There I worked on developing techniques to model spectral energy distributions of high redshift dusty star forming galaxies from UV-optical data by imposing energy balance.
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Mr Oscar Sage David O’Hara
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Funded in partnership between The University of Cambridge, The National Physics Laboratory and the European Space Agency. This collaborative project focuses on the development of a high sensitivity Electro-Optic antenna system alongside associated physics-motivated computational models aimed to classify electromagnetic emission in an environment with an extremely low S/N ratio. Before undertaking my PhD at Cambridge, I had research experience in the Very Low-Frequency Monitoring of the Earth's Ionosphere and the Impacts of Solar Flares.
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Mx Emma Shen
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I work on data analysis and modelling of foreground in global 21-cm experiments (e.g. REACH). The goal is to compensate for the effects using an advance nested sampler, PolyChord, based on Bayesian techniques. I have done some work on quantifying and analysing the chromatic ionospheric effects for my master’s project. The project is jointly funded by Cambridge Trust and the Ministry of Education in Taiwan.
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Mr Thomas Gessey-Jones
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My PhD project, funded by STFC, centres around providing a bridge between the experimentalists, data analysts, and theoreticians currently working on 21cm radio cosmology in Cambridge. In practise this means examining the results of the REACH and HERA experiments in light of various theoretical models that have been proposed for the 21cm emission signal.
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Mr Kilian
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My PhD project, funded by the Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, is in data analysis of the 21-cm signal using the cosmological experiments REACH and HERA. To achieve a successful detection of the aforementioned signal, I will use advanced bayesian techniques for signal extraction but will also consider alternative approaches by using machine learning algorithms. Before joining Cambridge, I had research experience in Spectroscopy and Photometry. For my M.Sc., I studied the chemical evolution of metal-poor stars within the Globular Cluster M30 by analyzing relative abundance trends and patterns. Furthermore, I gained computational experience by simulating the ionospheric composition of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Additionally, I used basic photometry to derive comet parameters.
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Mr Harry
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I work on data analysis techniques for Global 21-cm cosmology experiments such as REACH. I have looked primarily at the modelling of foregrounds with Maximally Smooth Functions (MSFs) and associated similar functions. I am the lead author and maintainer of the code maxsmooth which can be used to rapidly and efficiently fit MSFs. I am currently looking at Global 21-cm signal emulators.
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Mr John
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I focus upon the use of computational modelling for radio frequency electromagnetic systems. My work includes designing and analysing possible systematics for the dipole radiometer for the REACH global 21-cm experiment. I am now applying similar methods to understand and develop the SKA-low instrument (e.g. antenna and base station design).
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Dr Dominic
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I have been developing a Bayesian data analysis pipeline for the REACH experiment, which aims at a joint fit of the cosmological 21cm sky-averaged signal, the foregrounds and the instrument itself using physics-rooted models, measurements and simulations. I also work on simulations to identify the impact of systematic errors in the Square Kilometre Array on the ability to detect the 21cm signal.
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Dr Quentin
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My work focuses on developing EM modelling methods and calibration algorithms for wide-band phased arrays, such as the ones to be used by the SKA telescope. My work is funded by STFC. Previously I worked on Inhomogeneous plane-wave spectrum based Physical Optics for the simulation of urban radio propagation. I am currently focusing on the development of very fast calibration algorithms for phased arrays including all mutual coupling effects.
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Dr Ying-He Celeste Lü
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My background lies in computational astrophysics and high-performance computing for astronomy projects. During my PhD I worked on modelling and developing simulations for AGN accretion, jets and the effect of AGN feedback in galaxy clusters. I have also taken projects on development of large-scale cosmological simulations as well as analysis and visualisation software for simulation output. In the SKA project I work primarily in software development for the pipeline and processing workflows, as well as instrumental simulation and modelling. My research interests include HPC for radio astronomy, radio galaxies and AGN physics, and large-scale structure. I am also interested in astronomy outreach.
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Verity Allan
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My background is in mediaeval history and languages, and mathematics and computer science. I have worked as part of the University’s software innovations group, including work managing services and software testing. I have worked as the Engineer Co-ordinator for the SDP Design consortium, including as part of the architecture team. My current role is as Release Train Engineer for the SKAO Software Services Agile Release Train. My research interests include High Performance Computing for radio astronomy, focusing on the challenges of working with the massive datasets from the next generation of radio telescopes, and the history of computing for astronomy.
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Dr Johannes Allotey
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My background is in commissioning of radio telescopes from measuring the surface accuracy of the primary reflector using photogrammetry to carrying out observations and data reduction necessary for getting the telescope science ready. I have characterised the surface accuracy of the CBASS Southern telescope using photogrammetry and built a user-friendly webpage of quality data plots for diagnostic monitoring of the instrument during observations and science analysis. I spent a few years in the SKA office in South Africa carrying out observations with the Ghana telescope and reducing the data as part of efforts to show the conversion from a communication satellite dish to a radio telescope has been successful, and the earmarked science goals as a single dish and VLBI instrument are achievable. I am currently involved in developing pipelines for the SKA. My areas of research are cosmic magnetism, wide-field wide-band full-beam polarimetric continuum imaging, and machine learning.
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Dr Fred Dulwich
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Under construction.
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Dr Vladislav Stolyarov
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I have a background in radio physics, radio astronomy and cosmology, my PhD thesis was about primordial recombination and CMB spectral distortions. I worked with the Planck team for about 15 years doing software development for data reduction, focusing on maximum entropy methods application for the astrophysical component separation on the all-sky maps, point source and SZ clusters detection and catalogue construction. In the SKA project I work in software engineering participating in the aperture synthesis software development, simulation and modelling, HPC application development and testing on the large systems like CSD3 and Darwin. My research interests include radio astronomy data processing, CMB and cosmology, AGN physics and observations, diffuse foreground astrophysical properties (synchrotron, free-free, thermal and anomalous dust, CIB).
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Student's group photo - October 2022
Some past group members
(and their follow-on positions)
Dr Edgar Colin-Beltran, research fellow INOAE, Mexico (2013-2015) - Design of LPD antennas for the SKA MFAA instrument - Researcher at INOAE
Dr Jens Abraham, research assistant (2015-2017) - Modelling and characterisation of SKA1-LOW antennas, LNAs and arrays - Researcher at 3D Radar
Mr Nicholas Fagnoni, PhD student (2015-2021) - Electromagnetic modelling and design of the HERA front-end system - Research engineer at Airbus
Dr Hardie Pienaar, PDRA (2017-2018) - Design of SKALA4, SKA1-LOW array design, UAV measurements - Researcher at Reutech
Dr Christos Kolitsidas, visiting student (KTH Stockholm - 2017) - Chromatic effects in Global 21-cm cosmology experiments - Researcher at Ericsson
Dr Nausika Memeletzoglou, visiting student (UC3M Madrid - 2019) - Metasurface ground planes for radio cosmology - Researcher at Sener
Mr Shijie Sun, visiting researcher (CAS Beijing - 2020) - Receiver calibration for Global 21-cm cosmology experiments - Research engineer at CAS
Dr Ergin Dinc, PDRA (2019-2021) - Surface Wave launcher design for ultra fast digital communications - Research engineer at Isotropic Systems
Dr Syed Bukhari, PDRA (2019-2022) - Surface Wave launcher design for ultra fast digital communications - Data Scientist at Capgemini
Mr Nicholas Leherter, MPhil (2020-2022) - Measurements of low level EM emissions - Research engineer at Graphcore
Dr Alec Josaitis, PhD (2018-2022) - Commissioning and characterisation of HERA - Working on high frequency trading at Jump Trading
Mr Zijie Yu, visiting student (CAS Beijing - 2022-2023) - Transient science with AMI and e-Merlin - Moved back to CAS to finish his PhD
Dr Jens Abraham, research assistant (2015-2017) - Modelling and characterisation of SKA1-LOW antennas, LNAs and arrays - Researcher at 3D Radar
Mr Nicholas Fagnoni, PhD student (2015-2021) - Electromagnetic modelling and design of the HERA front-end system - Research engineer at Airbus
Dr Hardie Pienaar, PDRA (2017-2018) - Design of SKALA4, SKA1-LOW array design, UAV measurements - Researcher at Reutech
Dr Christos Kolitsidas, visiting student (KTH Stockholm - 2017) - Chromatic effects in Global 21-cm cosmology experiments - Researcher at Ericsson
Dr Nausika Memeletzoglou, visiting student (UC3M Madrid - 2019) - Metasurface ground planes for radio cosmology - Researcher at Sener
Mr Shijie Sun, visiting researcher (CAS Beijing - 2020) - Receiver calibration for Global 21-cm cosmology experiments - Research engineer at CAS
Dr Ergin Dinc, PDRA (2019-2021) - Surface Wave launcher design for ultra fast digital communications - Research engineer at Isotropic Systems
Dr Syed Bukhari, PDRA (2019-2022) - Surface Wave launcher design for ultra fast digital communications - Data Scientist at Capgemini
Mr Nicholas Leherter, MPhil (2020-2022) - Measurements of low level EM emissions - Research engineer at Graphcore
Dr Alec Josaitis, PhD (2018-2022) - Commissioning and characterisation of HERA - Working on high frequency trading at Jump Trading
Mr Zijie Yu, visiting student (CAS Beijing - 2022-2023) - Transient science with AMI and e-Merlin - Moved back to CAS to finish his PhD
Other Cambridge researchers
collaborating with the group
Prof. Roberto Maiolino (Professor) - Galaxy evolution
Dr. Sandro Tacchella (Lecturer) - Galaxy evolution
Prof. Richard G McMahon (Professor) - SKA
Dr. Paul Calleja (HPCS director) - SKA
Dr. Will Handley (Royal Society University Research Fellow) - REACH
{co-supervisor of Mr Harry Bevins, Mr Thomas Gessey-Jones, Mr Kilian Scheutwinkel and Mr Sam Leeney}
Dr Anastasia Fialkov (Lecturer at the Institute of Astronomy) - REACH, HERA
{co-supervisor of Mr Harry Bevins, Mr Thomas Gessey-Jones, Mr Simon Pochinda and Mx Emma Shen}
Dr Anas Moshin (Royal Society Research Fellow) - Ultra fast digital communications
Prof Mike Payne (Head of Cavendish Theory of Condensed Matter Group) - Ultra fast digital communications
Prof Richard Penty (Engineering Department) - Ultra fast digital communications
Dr Michael Crisp (Engineering Department) - Ultra fast digital communications
Dr. Sandro Tacchella (Lecturer) - Galaxy evolution
Prof. Richard G McMahon (Professor) - SKA
Dr. Paul Calleja (HPCS director) - SKA
Dr. Will Handley (Royal Society University Research Fellow) - REACH
{co-supervisor of Mr Harry Bevins, Mr Thomas Gessey-Jones, Mr Kilian Scheutwinkel and Mr Sam Leeney}
Dr Anastasia Fialkov (Lecturer at the Institute of Astronomy) - REACH, HERA
{co-supervisor of Mr Harry Bevins, Mr Thomas Gessey-Jones, Mr Simon Pochinda and Mx Emma Shen}
Dr Anas Moshin (Royal Society Research Fellow) - Ultra fast digital communications
Prof Mike Payne (Head of Cavendish Theory of Condensed Matter Group) - Ultra fast digital communications
Prof Richard Penty (Engineering Department) - Ultra fast digital communications
Dr Michael Crisp (Engineering Department) - Ultra fast digital communications
Major collaborations
Our current major collaborations include:
Research in Radio-astronomy
Prof Aaron Parsons and Dr David DeBoer (UC Berkley, US) - 21-cm cosmology, HERA project
Prof Jackie Hewitt (MIT, US) - 21-cm cosmology, HERA project
Dr Colin Lonsdale and Dr Frank Lind (MIT- Haystack observatory, US) - RAPID project
Prof Kris Zarb Adami (Malta university, Malta, and Oxford university, UK) - SKA, REACH
Dr Lincoln Greenhill (Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, US) - 21-cm cosmology
Prof Kavilian Moodley (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) - 21-cm intensity mapping, HIRAX
Prof Rennan Barkana (Princeton university, US and Tel Aviv university, Israel) - 21-cm cosmology
Research in Technology
Prof Christophe Craeye (UcL Belgium) - Array design, EM modelling, Array calibration
Prof Dirk de Villiers (Stellenbosch university, South Africa) - Antenna design, REACH experiment
Prof Anthony K Brown (QMUL, UK) - SKA, Array calibration and EM modelling
Prof Clive Parini (QMUL, UK) - EM measurements
Prof Kevin Weatherill (Durham university, UK) - EM measurements - Rydberg sensors
Prof Stuart Adams (Durham university, UK) - EM measurements - Rydberg sensors
SyMAT COST action and its members, mainly:
Prof Eva Rajo (UC3M, Spain) - Metasurfaces
Prof Oscar Quevedo Teruel (KTH, Sweden) - Metasurfaces
Prof Guido Valerio (UPMC, Paris, France) - Higher symmetry structures
Main Industry partners with whom we currently collaborate
Cambridge Consultants Ltd. - Radio antennas and low noise amplifiers
National Physics Laboratory (Prof Tian Loh) - Measurements of low-levels of EM emissions
BT Labs - Ultra fast Surface Wave Communications
Ofcom - Spectrum management
European Space Agency (Dr Johannes Wolf) - Measurements of low-levels of EM emissions
Research in Radio-astronomy
Prof Aaron Parsons and Dr David DeBoer (UC Berkley, US) - 21-cm cosmology, HERA project
Prof Jackie Hewitt (MIT, US) - 21-cm cosmology, HERA project
Dr Colin Lonsdale and Dr Frank Lind (MIT- Haystack observatory, US) - RAPID project
Prof Kris Zarb Adami (Malta university, Malta, and Oxford university, UK) - SKA, REACH
Dr Lincoln Greenhill (Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, US) - 21-cm cosmology
Prof Kavilian Moodley (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) - 21-cm intensity mapping, HIRAX
Prof Rennan Barkana (Princeton university, US and Tel Aviv university, Israel) - 21-cm cosmology
Research in Technology
Prof Christophe Craeye (UcL Belgium) - Array design, EM modelling, Array calibration
Prof Dirk de Villiers (Stellenbosch university, South Africa) - Antenna design, REACH experiment
Prof Anthony K Brown (QMUL, UK) - SKA, Array calibration and EM modelling
Prof Clive Parini (QMUL, UK) - EM measurements
Prof Kevin Weatherill (Durham university, UK) - EM measurements - Rydberg sensors
Prof Stuart Adams (Durham university, UK) - EM measurements - Rydberg sensors
SyMAT COST action and its members, mainly:
Prof Eva Rajo (UC3M, Spain) - Metasurfaces
Prof Oscar Quevedo Teruel (KTH, Sweden) - Metasurfaces
Prof Guido Valerio (UPMC, Paris, France) - Higher symmetry structures
Main Industry partners with whom we currently collaborate
Cambridge Consultants Ltd. - Radio antennas and low noise amplifiers
National Physics Laboratory (Prof Tian Loh) - Measurements of low-levels of EM emissions
BT Labs - Ultra fast Surface Wave Communications
Ofcom - Spectrum management
European Space Agency (Dr Johannes Wolf) - Measurements of low-levels of EM emissions