Meet...Dr Sadie Jones

I appeared in the University of Southampton, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering Newsletter this month :)

Meet...Dr Sadie Jones Can you tell us about yourself and your role within Physics and Astronomy? I work as the Outreach Leader in Astronomy. My job involves managing a group of PhD and Undergraduate Astronomy students who work with the mobile planetarium. We go out into schools to do shows for Primary - A–level student groups, and also do shows on campus for events like Open Days and BBC Stargazing Live. What do you think are the benefits of the outreach work carried out in the department? I think its important to show students of all ages in local schools what real scientists in the UoS look like and also it's important for the students to realise that scientists are just normal people and that science is a realistic job prospect for them. There are still so many questions we don't know the answer to so it is important we inspire the next generation of physicists and astronomers to further our understanding of the Universe. Can you tell us about some of the activities you carry out in the outreach team? We go out into schools twice a week during term time with the mobile planetarium. I also give a talks on aliens for primary level which features inflatable planets and I give a talk on Supermassive Black holes for GCSE, A-level and Astronomy societies, which focuses on my PhD research. I am especially excited because I will be joining the UoS Roadshow at Bestival talking about the INTEGRAL gamma ray telescope and other UoS astrophysics  research to the festival goers. Are you enjoying being a science correspondent on BBC Radio Solent? Yes, It's really fun. I enjoy doing the background research on the 3 science stories and it's an adrenaline rush to explain them live on radio when I don't know what questions I will be asked about the stories.  I am learning so much more about recent UK science news as a result and I hope the listeners learn more too. If you want to keep up to date on all the latest news from the Astronomy Outreach team your can follow them on Twitter @SotonAstrodome

What is exciting about correlated X-ray and Radio radiation from Black Holes?

As part of my PhD studies we are asked to produce posters on a yearly basis to showcase our research to members of the physics department. Below is a poster aimed at students with at least an Undergraduate level of Physics studies behind them. I made this poster in 2010, and the question which is the title of poster was based on a question from a GCSE Astronomy student. The student asked me at the end of a talk on my research 'But why do you study the radio and X-ray from black holes, what is interesting about it?'...This question threw me at the time, but it did help me make this poster more accesible I think. It's those fundamental questions that people in research should ask themselves daily, as this can help you get through the day and remind you why you are doing all this research/banging your head against the wall in the first place!

JPG of my poster for .pdf version that you can zoom in on click link below

For the PDF version of the 'exciting' poster,aimed at Physics Undergraduate level please click here.

Below is a poster I prepared for the European Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Meeting  also in 2010...This poster is on the same material as the poster above but at a slightly more advanced level and focuses mainly on the radio radiation from the supermassive black hole, and the VLBI imagery of the galaxy.

JPG of Poster for the EVN Conference in 2010, for the .pdf version that you can zoom into and read click below

For the PDF version of the EVN poster, aimed at Physics Undergraduate level and above please click here.

Below is one of Dan Plant's posters about Black holes. This poster was done for an MPhys project at Lancaster University. Dan is now studying for his PhD, also in black holes, here at the University of Southampton.