Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Professor of Physics
- Dept of Physics & Astronomy
- Faculty of Maths & Physical Sciences
I grew up in Manchester, (Wright Robinson High School and Shena Simon 6th form college), then went to Oxford, getting a BA in physics in 1989 and a DPhil in particle physics in 1992. I moved to DESY, Hamburg, to work for Pennsylvania State University. I joined UCL in 1995. There is more information, including my blog, Life and Physics, linked from my home page.




I work on the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). I led a UCL group which contributed to the tracking, trigger and software. My own work has focussed on physics processes at the LHC which will help us discover more about electroweak symmetry breaking, or basically "why some things have mass". This included searching for the Higgs boson, discovered in July 2012. I wrote some of the first papers on using the substructure of hadronic jets to identify the decays of boosted, massive particles - including the Higgs. I am now working on using precision measurements at the LHC to constrain or characterise physics beyond the Standard Model. I was convener of the ATLAS Monte Carlo group (2007-2009) and of the ATLAS Standard Model group (2010-2012).
Until 2008 I worked on ZEUS experiment at the HERA electron proton collider at DESY in Hamburg. I made the first measurements of the photoproduction of hadronic jets. I was physics chair of the experiment in 2003-2004. I led efforts to translate HERA data to have an impact at the LHC.
I have made several contributions to theory/phenomenology, including studies of multiparton interactions, jet substructure and other aspects of QCD at colliders, supersymmetry, vector boson scattering, and Higgs physics. I am an author of the widely-used Rivet analysis library and the once-widely-used JIMMY multiparton interaction model for the Herwig event generator.
From 1996 to 2002 inclusive I taught the UCL 4th year MSci Particle Physics course.
From 2008 to 2011 inclusive I taught the 1st year Mathematical Methods for Physics II course.
Currently I am giving "Standard Model 1" lectures to PhD students from QMUL, RHUL and UCL, and half of "Mathematical Methods for Physics III" to second year UCL undergraduates.
I have lectured at MCnet schools on Collider Physics and Monte Carlo in Ambleside (2014), Spa (2015) Sao Paulo (2016), Hamburg (2016), Quy Nhon (2019). I have lectured a several other graduate schools including BUSSTEPP (1998, 1999, 2017) the Corfu Summer Institute (2013, 2017), the 22nd Vietnam School of Physics (2016) and YETI at Durham (2019).
I have supervised numerous PhD, MSc and MSci students.
01-APR-2021 – 31-MAR-2025 | STFC Council Member | STFC | UKRI, United Kingdom |
18-MAR-2019 – 17-MAR-2026 | International Advisory Board Member | Quantum Universe Cluster of Excellence | Hamburg University, Germany |
01-OCT-2017 – 30-SEP-2020 | DiRAC RAC Particle Physics & Nuclear Theory Sub-Panel | Science and Technology Research Council, United Kingdom | |
01-SEP-2016 | Publications Board | Library Services | UCL, United Kingdom |
14-JUL-2016 | Scientific Advisor to UK CERN Council Delegation | Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | UK Government, United Kingdom |
01-FEB-2016 | External Research Advisor | Physics & Astronomy | University of Sussex, United Kingdom |
01-MAY-2015 – 30-APR-2020 | Member of executive group | OVPR, Grand Challenges II/CU | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-SEP-2013 – 31-AUG-2016 | Bibliometrics Working Group | Library Services | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-NOV-2011 – 31-AUG-2017 | Research Information and IT Services Group (RIISG) member | OVPR | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-SEP-2011 – 31-AUG-2018 | Head of Department | Physics & Astronomy | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-2010 – 30-SEP-2012 | ATLAS Standard Model Convenor | CERN, Switzerland | |
31-AUG-2010 – 13-JUL-2016 | UK CERN Committee | Business, Innovation & Skills | UK Government, United Kingdom |
01-JUL-2010 – 31-JUL-2013 | Science Board Member | STFC, United Kingdom | |
01-SEP-2008 – 31-AUG-2011 | Vice Dean (Research) | Mathematical & Physics Sciences | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-2007 – 30-SEP-2009 | ATLAS Monte Carlo Convenor | CERN, Switzerland | |
01-JUL-2007 – 30-JUN-2010 | Particle Physics, Astronomy & Nuclear Science Committee | STFC, United Kingdom | |
01-SEP-2006 – 31-AUG-2011 | Chair of Steering Committee | Institute of Particle Phenomenology (IPPP) | Durham University & STFC, United Kingdom |
01-SEP-2005 | Professor of Physics | Physics & Astronomy | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-SEP-2004 – 31-AUG-2008 | Head of High Energy Physics | Physics & Astronomy | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-JUL-2004 – 30-JUN-2006 | Project Peer Review Panel Chair | STFC, United Kingdom | |
01-JAN-2003 – 01-FEB-2004 | Physics Chair of ZEUS Experiment | DESY, Germany | |
01-SEP-2002 – 31-AUG-2005 | Reader in Physics | Physics & Astronomy | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-DEC-1995 – 31-AUG-2002 | Lecturer | Physics & Astronomy | UCL, United Kingdom |
10-DEC-1992 – 30-NOV-1995 | Postdoctoral Research Associate | Physics | Penn State University, United States |
1992 | Doctor of Philosophy | University of Oxford | |
1989 | Bachelor of Arts (Honours) | University of Oxford |