Accepting applications from PhD students.
Email: P.S.Wiseman@soton.ac.uk
Dr Phil Wiseman is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy. He is interested in astrophysical transients, the sudden and extremely luminous signatures of the deaths of stars and the feeding of black holes. He plays an active role in understanding these violent processed through large astronomical surveys like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time, and the European Southern Observatory's 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope.
Dr Philip Wiseman has been awarded the prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship. The honour recognises the most promising early-career particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics researchers in the UK and supports them to develop their careers and push the boundaries of their field. Philip's award will support him to search for cosmic explosions and to understand what causes them.
The most energetic explosions and flares in the Universe signal the deaths of stars and the violent growth of black holes. Recent all-sky telescope surveys have revealed a handful of extremely bright, long-lived flares from supermassive black holes on scales never seen before. Why they occur and how they become so bright is unknown.
Philip will search for many more of these eruptions to understand what causes them, providing new insights into how black holes grow and how they sculpt the centres of galaxies.
Dr Phil Wiseman leads team witnessing the largest cosmic explosion caused by giant black hole.
