Haley Gomez

Current position

2005 – Present : Lecturer Cardiff University

Education

2006 – 2008 – Postgraduate Certificate of University Teaching and Learning Diploma qualification awarded
2004 – 2005 – Research Fellowship with the Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851
2001 – 2004 – PhD Astrophysics, Cardiff University
1997 – 2001 – MPhys, 1st Class Honours, Cardiff University
1995 – 1997 – A Levels, Barry Sixth Form School
1990 – 1995 – GCSEs, Bryn Hafren Comprehensive School

Professional Activities

2010 – present: STFC panel member
2011-present: STFC Women in SET Focus group
2007-present: Referee for MNRAS, ApJ
2008-present: Referee for Gemini & JCMT proposals
2009-2010: External referee for STFC standard grants and advanced fellowships
2009-present: External Examiner, Glamorgan University
2008-present: Fellow of Higher Education Academy
2009-present: Science and Engineering Ambassador
2004-present: Fellow Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851
2008-present: Visiting Astronomer for LCOGT
2006-present: WISE committee member, WISE role model
2004-2007: Member Sense About Science, Voice of Young Science

Research Talks

2012 Organiser 1 day RAS specialist meeting
2011 tbd Seminar UCL
2010 invited RAS talk for specialist meeting: Herschel
2010 Seminar UCSB, Santa Barbara, US
2010 Brown bag lunch, LCOGT, Santa Barbara, US
2010 Talk and Co-organiser of one day workshop in celebration of the research of Prof Mike Edmunds, Cardiff
2009 Session Chair, Cosmic Dust Workshop, Copenhagen
2009 Invited Presentation NAM, Hertfordshire
2008 Brown Bag Lunch, LCOGT & UCSB, Santa Barbara, US
2008 Seminar, JCBA Manchester
2008 Seminar, Southampton
2008 Seminar, Infrared Astronomy, National Observatory of Athens, Greece
2004 Talk, National Astronomy Meeting, Bristol, UK
2003 Talk, National Astronomy Meeting, Dublin

Other Conferences:

2009 Posters: The Importance of Dust to the Interstellar Dust Budget, Dust Factory Revealed via Submillimetre Polarimetry (on behalf of L Dunne), Stellar Death and Supernovae, Santa Barbara, US
2007 Poster: The Origin of Galaxies: Exploring Galaxy Evolution with the New Generation of Infrared-Millimeter Facilities, Obergurgl, Austria
2005 Poster presentation to HRH Prince Philip, Buckingham Palace, London, UK
2005 Poster presentation, SET for Britain event, London, UK
2003 Poster, Dust In Astrophysics, Colorado, USA

Grants

2010-2011: Co-I on engagement grant Cardiff University 1.8K
2010-2013: Co-I on successful Astronomy research rolling grant application to STFC (PI Eales)
2010-2012: Co-I on successful Astronomy Grant to NASA ADP totaling $233K (PI Rho, Caltech)
2009-2011: Co-I STFC Large Award totaling 100K
2007-2010: Co-I on successful Astronomy research rolling grant application to STFC totalling £5M (PI Eales)
2008 International Collaboration Fund awarded by the University to spend 7 weeks working in the US at LCOGT, totalling £3K awarded June 2008
2005-2006: Successful completion of a post-doctoral Research Fellowship with the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, awarded Oct 2004 – Oct 2005, totalling £23K (paid directly as stipend)
2006-2007: Co-I on Teacher Scientist Network grant totalling £1K to work with children from two local schools as an after-school club, awarded by Techniquest in 2006

Prizes & Awards

2005 Runner-up Cavendish medal in Physics, SET for Britian
2005 Shortlisted for Times Higher Young Researcher of the Year
2005 RAS Micheal Penston Astronomy Prize for best UK doctoral thesis in Astronomy and Astrophysics
2004 Research Fellowship, Royal Commission of 1851
2002 Bessie Jones Prize for most outstanding postgraduate of the year
2001 1st Year postgraduate prize for best presentation

Teaching

2009 – 2010 Module Organizer Gregynog MPhys residential course
2005 – present Supervisor MPhys project students
2005 – present Supervisor BSc project students including introduction of a new project for future teachers
2005 – present Module Organizer Physical Cosmology 3rd Year module
2005 - present Module Organizer Cosmos, 1st Year Module (+free standing)
2005-present Lecturer and now Module Organizer (from 2007), Physics of Stars, 2nd Year Module
2005 - present Personal tutor and academic tutor for 16 and 27 students
2006 - present Supervisor, Laboratory Physics, 1st Year Module
2005 – 2006 Planetary Systems, 2nd Yr Module
2005-2007 Guest Lecturer, Topics in Astronomy, 2nd Year Module
2005 – Co-supervisor, Physics Laboratory, 2nd Year Module
2007 – present Staff representative for Chaos student society
Including writing and marking exam papers, setting formal assessment and coursework, conducting student vivas.

Telescope Allocation

2009-present – Herschel (ESA/NASA). Guaranteed time projects –SAG 2 (leaders: S Madden, C Wilson, S Eales, A Boselli)= 362 hours, SAG 6 (leader: M. Groenewegen) – 142.4 hours
Open time project (PIs L Dunne, S Eales) – 344.3 hours
2009 – present – CO observations of Cas A approx. 10 hours (coI), IRAM
2007-2009 – LABOCA (ESO) – PI on three projects, CoI on one project: 45 hours awarded total.
2008 – AKARI (ESA/JAPAN) – PI: 48 hours total (10% of all time available to European astronomers)
2004 – present: JCMT (UK/CANADA) – PI: 194 hours awarded only 50% obtained due to telecope issues, CoI projects - 30 hours.

Observing Experience

SCUBA on James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, SHARCII on the Caltech Submillimetre Observatory, LABOCA on APEX, Chile. Commissioning of 0.4-m telescopes for LCOGT on Haleakala, Maui.

Outreach and Engagement

I have presented to a number of local astronomical societies, helped out with local and national museum events (speaking to over 5000 members of the public in the National Science museum and the Royal Society Summer Exhibition), discussed astronomical news on the radio, and organised an astronomy club in a local school for a year. I was chosen to be part of STFC’s Explorers of the Universe, an exhibition of UK astronomers to be shown in late 2009. I have been lucky enough to be invited to give public lectures at Cardiff Scientific Society and the FAS and the BAA. As part of a volunteer fellowship with the Faulkes Telescope project, I have provided training for teachers in the use of robotic telescopes and entry-level astronomy including the design of astronomy-based resources to use in the classroom both in the UK and internationally (as part of European Hands on Universe). I have also helped create educational activities and run educational sessions for Las Cumbres Observatory. I am part of the Sense About Science group (a charity promoting good science and evidence for the public), helping to write a publication for young/new scientists on how to work positively with the media (Standing up for Science, 2005) which was sent to every graduate school in the UK. We also caused a national stir with our publication on Debunking Detox and Detox Dossier which was discussed in newspapers worldwide. I am also involved with promoting women in Science through WISE (Women into Science, Engineering and Construction) as a committee member on the Wise in Wales board and as a role model, through this I was able to take part in the Superstars series as a Superstar (with infrared vision) which promotes Science and Engineering as a career for primary school children currently touring across Wales and will be seen in the rest of the UK soon. I am an active member of theHerschel Outreach Group and as part of this have contributed a number of articles (web and in Schools Science Review journal for teachers) and spent three full days in a School trialling out education activities related to Herschel. I am also a Science Engineering Ambassador.

Public Talks

Nov 2012 tbd Abergavenny Astronomical Society
Nov 2011 tbd Brigend Astronomical Society
Oct 2011 tbd Bath Astronomical Society
March 2011 Swansea Astronomical Society
Feb 2011 Cardiff Scientific Society: Smoking Supernovae
Jan 2011 Open University Fusion Society – guest lecture
Oct 2010 Torbay Astronomical Society: Smoking Supernovae
Sept 2010 British Astronomical Association: Herschel: Smoking Supernoave and Smouldering Stars
2010 Bristol Astronomical Society: Herschel:Unveiling the Cool Universe
2010 Talks to Sixth Form events approx. 600 pupils
2009 Federation of Astronomical Societies @ Cambridge: Herschel: Unveiling the Cool Universe
2009 Cardiff University: sixth form conference – Smoking Supernovae
2009 Bristol Astronomical Society: Smoking Supernovae
2009 Swansea Astronomical Society: Are you afraid of the dark? Cosmology
2009 Port Talbot Astronomical Society: Smoking Supernovae
2009 Cardiff Astronomical Society: Smoking Supernovae
2008 Swansea Astronomical Society: Smoking Supernovae
2008 Brigend Astronomical Society: Are you afraid of the dark? Cosmology
2006 Workshop, EU-HoU teacher workshop, Naples, Italy
2008 Faulkes Telescope Teacher Training Workshop: Exploding Stars
2007 Brigend Astronomical Society:Dust in Supernovae

Media Coverage

2010 – press release on Herschel ATLAS Lens story (led by Mattia Negrello) including live radio interview for BBC
2010 – press release on Nature article on Herschel discovery of warm water vapour in luminous carbon star (led by Leen Decin) here covered by BBCand Wired.com and other online news stories.
2010 – invited participant for STFC funded Large Award project Explorers of the Universe which has exhibited in Royal Albert Hall, photograph featured in BBC online (front page) and Sky at Night/Astronomy Now magazines.
2009 – BBC Radio 4 Material World appearance on Herschel and cosmic dust, listen to the podcast here (17 mins in).
2009 – BBC Radio Wales Science Cafe interview on Women in Science
2009 – contact for UK press release for 3D Cassiopeia A led by T DeLaney (DeLaney et al. submitted) including two TV interviews for BBC Wales News and ITV Wales News. Email contact with Good Morning America. Online stories include BBC. BBC Sky at Night and Astronomy & Geophysics covered the story.
2009 - press release for article on strange supernova dust (Dunne et al. 2009)
2009 – Voice of Young Science Detox – articles in Guardian, Times, BBC, and many international newspapers, including interviews on BBC radio, feature on BBC News Quiz and Today programme press release
2008 – Cas A dust (Rho et al. 2008) press release
2008 – interview for IOP Interactions magazine
2008 – featured on Cardiff online: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/125/getinvolved/mycardiff/171008b.html
2006 – BBC Radio Wales, One to Watch feature
2003 - press release on Supernova dust article published in Nature (Dunne et al. 2003), radio interview for BBC Wales, phone interview with LA Times, The Guardian. Newspapers: Times and Science Magazines: New Scientist, Physics Today covered release (Dunne et al. Nature 2003)