Robert Firth Email & Phone Number

Cheshire, England, United Kingdom

Hartree Centre, Daresbury Laboratory

Southampton, United Kingdom

Maintaining my links to the Southampton Supernova Group I provide input and guidance on projects that follow on from my research done as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. I am also continuing to maintain and develop the data augmentation pipeline for Stripped-Envelope Supernovae, and build on that project, looking forward to LSST.

Southampton, United Kingdom

After my success as the University of Southampton Isaac Physics Widening Participation Fellow, to reflect the support of the Ogden Trust as well as the Department of Education, I transitioned into the role of Ogden-Isaac Fellow. The Isaac Physics project combines a book and online study tool with face-to-face events at partner schools and institutions across the UK. Isaac is the new name for what began as the Rutherford Physics Partnership.Physics insight and understanding comes through doing physics, in particular solving problems. Isaac is a site designed to offer support and activities in physics problem solving to teachers and to students transitioning from GCSE (Y11), through to Sixth Form (Y12 & 13), to university. It combines an online study tool with face-to-face events at partner schools and institutions across the UK. Isaac is the new name for what began as the Rutherford Physics Partnership.Our resources and events are designed to provide students with an additional arena in which to develop the skills required to solve physical problems. Here they will develop an intuition and understanding of physical principles by tackling a range of examples from idealised problems through to real-world situations. With our online course we also provide pages that give insight and practice in fundamental mathematical and physical techniques that are essential for potential physicists and engineers to have at their fingertips.As an Ogden-Isaac Fellow, I work at the University of Southampton organising and running face-to-face workshops and masterclasses for students, and CPD sessions for Teachers and other Educational Professionals. This makes heavy use of both my physics problem solving skills, and my good interpersonal and time management skills.

Southampton, United Kingdom

Working as a post-doctoral researcher on precursor projects for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, under Prof. Mark Sullivan, on an STFC Grant awarded for a Dark Energy Science Proposal. My role consists of constructing a template set of supernovae that contaminate photometrically-selected supernova cosmology samples. With this template set, we can generate sufficient numbers of objects to train machine-learning classifiers, augmenting sparse observational data. To do this I have curated available objects from the literature, been involved in the development and maintainance of a C++ code, CoCo, and my own python tools to interact with the data, the simulations and the outputs, either as a text file or SQLite database. This is a heavily data-intensive project, as the throughput of the LSST pipeline is likely to be an order of magnitude greater than on current-generation sky surveys (Terabyte per night), and in the case of transient phenomena such as Supernovae, analysis and follow-up allocation is time-critical.I have presented this work at international conferences, and am currently preparing a manuscript for submission to the peer-reviewed journal - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronmical Society (MNRAS).I am also a named Co-investigator on the PESSTO Project and PLASTICC.

Southampton, United Kingdom

As the Isaac Physics Widening Participation Fellow I was one of 5 post-doctoral candidates awarded a fellowship to work on the Department for Education-funded Isaac Physics Project. The project combines a book and online study tool with face-to-face events at partner schools and institutions across the UK. Isaac is the new name for what began as the Rutherford Physics Partnership.Physics insight and understanding comes through doing physics, in particular solving problems. Isaac is a site designed to offer support and activities in physics problem solving to teachers and to students transitioning from GCSE (Y11), through to Sixth Form (Y12 & 13), to university. It combines an online study tool with face-to-face events at partner schools and institutions across the UK. Isaac is the new name for what began as the Rutherford Physics Partnership.Our resources and events are designed to provide students with an additional arena in which to develop the skills required to solve physical problems. Here they will develop an intuition and understanding of physical principles by tackling a range of examples from idealised problems through to real-world situations. With our online course we also provide pages that give insight and practice in fundamental mathematical and physical techniques that are essential for potential physicists and engineers to have at their fingertips.As a Widening Participation Fellow, I worked at the University of Southampton organising and running face-to-face workshops and masterclasses for students, and CPD sessions for Teachers and other Educational Professionals. This made heavy use of both my physics problem solving skills, and my good interpersonal and time management skills. Organising these events was initially challenging, with the project having little uptake in my region. However, as I built a network, I was able to make great strides, delivering upwards of 15 events in my first year.

Southampton

Working under a department Outreach Officer, I am one of a small number of Dome Managers responsible for providing our outreach activity, The Southampton Astrodome - an inflatable planetarium, to Schools and events within 2 hours drive of Southampton.Usually working as a team of 2 or 3, it is my main responsibility to ensure the activity is delivered on schedule and in an accurate and age appropriate way. Typically catering for up to 150 students over a full day of sessions, the activity consists of a briefing - explaining space, astronomy and planetaria, a short film - We Are Astronomers, and a 20-30 minute tour of the night sky within the Planetarium followed by a Q&A session.As the Dome manager, I hold, on the day, logistical responsibility for over £15,000 of projection equipment, driving a van with the equipment to the booking, liaising with staff at the venue and co-ordinating setup with the demonstrators, as well as providing the activity myself for up to 36 people at a time.

Southampton, United Kingdom

Northumberland Park, Tyne And Wear

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Astronomy And Astrophysics, Awarded Jan 2017

Activities and Societies: Southampton University Mountain Bike Club Southampton Spitfires Ice Hockey ClubI have an active research.

Master’S Degree, Physics And Astronomy, 1St Class

Activities and Societies: Sheffield Bears University Ice Hockey Club (Positions held: Club Captain, Vice President, Treasurer, First Team.