Darach Watson
Curriculum Vitae
Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute,
University of Copenhagen,
Juliane Maries Vej 30,
DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø,
Denmark
Telephone: +45 2480 3825
Email: [email protected]
http://www.dark-cosmology.dk/~darach
ORCID: 0000-0002-4465-8264
Date of birth:
Nationality:
Family
Partner
1974-09-09
Irish
2 children
Anja C. Andersen
Link to ORCID
CURRENT POSITION
02/2006–08/2015
Lektor (Assoc. Prof.), Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University
of Copenhagen
08/2005–08/2015
Senior staff at the Dark Cosmology Centre
RESEARCH POSTS & EDUCATION
02/2003–01/2006
EU-RTN Fellow, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
02/2001–01/2003
Postdoctoral Research Assoc. (PDRA), Dept. of Physics & Astronomy,
University of Leicester
06/2000–01/2001
PDRA, Dept. of Physics, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland
10/1996–09/2000
PhD, Physics, UCD, Dublin, Ireland
X-ray and Infrared Spectrometry of BL Lacs, Quasars and SMPs
Supervisor: Prof. Brian McBreen
09/1992–06/1996
BSc [2H1] (Experimental Physics [Maj.] & Mathematical Physics) UCD
RESEARCH PROFILE
Publications:
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108 articles published in international peer-reviewed journals (180 total)
20 articles as 1st author
9 in Nature, 5 of these as 1st or 2nd author
3 articles in Science’s top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2003 and 2005
no. 4 discovery in Physics World’s breakthroughs of 2011
7000 citations
h-index 44 (peer-reviewed papers only) in sixteen years of publishing
Link to ADS
library of my
peer-reviewed
papers
Research Interests:
First stars and galaxies; Evolution of star-formation over cosmic time; Cosmography; Dark energy;
Cosmic dust; Gamma-ray bursts; AGN; Gender representation in science
see http://www.dark-cosmology.dk/~darach/Home/Research.html
AWARDS
2013
Lundbeck Young Researcher Prize (€40 000 personal prize to a scientist under the age of 40 who
has conducted outstanding research in the natural sciences)
2005
Schrödinger Fellowship at the School of Cosmic Physics, DIAS (declined)
2003
Marie Curie Fellowship at ESAC, ESA (declined)
1996
Research Demonstratorship, UCD
1996
Forbairt (Irish national development agency) Fundamental Research Award
1992
Dept. of Education Third level education through Irish scholarship
TEACHING
Co-chair, MSc Astrophysics curriculum development committee (U. Copenhagen)
Astronomical Spectra (graduate, U. Copenhagen)
High Energy Astrophysics (graduate, U. Copenhagen)
Exoplanet Atmospheres (graduate, U. Copenhagen)
Lectures ‘Gamma-Ray Bursts’ at PhD school, CompSchool (Copenhagen 2009)
Advanced Cosmology (guest lecturer, graduate, U. Copenhagen)
1st year physics laboratory (UC Dublin)
3rd and 4th year physics laboratory (UC Dublin)
SUPERVISION
Postdoc:
Dan Perley (2015–)
Sebastian Hönig (2014)
Thomas Krühler (2011–2013)
John French (2008)
PhD:
Andreas Skielboe (due 2015)
Anthea King (due 2015)
Tayyaba Zafar (2011, Pakistan's first female astronomer)
As co-supervisor:
Michal Michalowski (2009)
José María Castro Céron (2008)
Suzanne Foley (2008)
MSc:
Mikkel Juhl Hobert (due 2015)
Simone Juul Jakobsen (2013)
Mette Friis (2012)
Bitten Gullberg Nielsen (2012)
Mike Alexandersen (2009)
Rosina Pisecka Hein (2009)
Jón Gudmundsson (2008)
Liv Mostad-Jensen (2008)
PhD Evaluations:
Karen Pardos Olsen (2015, U. Copenhagen, Chair)
Christoffer Lundman (2013, U. Stockholm)
Gisela Baumann (2012, U. Copenhagen, Chair)
Signe Riemer-Sorensen (2009, U. Copenhagen, Chair)
Marco Nardini (2009, SISSA, Trieste)
Chloé Feron (2008, U. Copenhagen, Chair)
Luis Borgonovo (2007, U. Stockholm)
Kristen Kruse Madsen (2007, U. Copenhagen, Chair)
ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT:
Hiring and personnel manager (DARK, 2005–2010):
—advertising and targeted recruitment, selections, interviews, and contracts for 15 staff
Postdocs:
Jin An
Kelly Denney
Anna Gallazzi
Berian James
Daniele Malesani
Justyn Maund
Andrea Morandi
Marceau Limousin
David Rapetti
Johan Richard
Maximilian Stritzinger
Antonio de Ugarte Postigo
Radoslaw Wojtak
Stefano Zibetti
Administrators:
Michelle Cumming Løkkegaard
External funding coordinator (DARK, 2005–2010):
—total obtained as coordinator: €5 700 000
Private foundations (Lundbeck, Villum, and Carlsberg Foundations): 15 MDKK (€2 000 000)
Brahe Programme (Danish National Research Foundation): 3.5 MDKK (€475 000)
University of Copenhagen co-financing and fellowship for Justyn Maund: 3.5 MDKK (€475 000)
Marie Curie fellowships (European Commission): €1 750 000
Paul Vreeswijk
Vallery Stanishev
Árdís Elíasdóttir
Marianne Vestergaard
Margrethe Wold
Lise Christensen
Thomas Krühler
IT supervisor (DARK, 2006–2010):
1.5 IT professionals
Non-salary budget: 300 kKr (€40 000) p.a.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND SERVICE
Referee
Nature
The Astrophysical Journal
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Reviewer
UK Science and Technology Facilities Council
Czech Science Foundation
Swedish Space Board
XMM-Newton time allocation committee
Chandra time allocation committee
JCMT time allocation committee
University of Texas–Pan American (tenure review)
Promotion of the equality of the sexes in science
Watson, D. & Hjorth, J. “Denmark: Women’s grants lost in inequality ocean”, 2015, Nature 519, 158
Watson, D., et al., “Mysterious disappearance of the female researchers”, 2005, Nature 436, 174
Watson, D., et al., “The mysterious disappearance of women: the origin of the leaking pipe—
cumulative bias and gender equity in the first EURYI scheme”, 2009 In: Women in Astronomy 2009 eds.
Kinney, A., et al., pp. 237–242
Andersen, A. C. et al. 2005 In: NorWip. Proceedings of the first workshop, pp. 19–21
CONFERENCES
Scientific Organising Committees since 2010
European week of astronomy and space science 2014 – Symposium 4: Origin of cosmic dust (Geneva,
July 2014)
European week of astronomy and space science 2014 – Special Meeting 2: Myths and facts about
women in astronomy (Geneva, July 2014)
The Life Cycle of Dust in the Universe: Observations, Theory, and Laboratory Experiments (Taipei,
November 2013) and Proceedings editor http://pos.sissa.it/cgibin/reader/conf.cgi?confid=207 )
SIROKKO/DISCO: Dust in Space: Consequences and Origins (Corsica, November 2011)
Talks at international conferences since 2010
“A dusty normal galaxy at z = 7.5” at Galaxies of many colours (Marstrand, June 2015)
Invited review “The X-ray afterglows of GRBs” at The X-ray Universe (Dublin, June 2014)
“Dust build-up in an archetypal early universe galaxy at z = 7.4” at The formation and growth of galaxies in
the young universe (Obergürgl, April 2014)
“Origin of soft X-ray absorption in GRB afterglows” at Galaxies meet GRBs (Almeria, October 2013)
“The Origin of soft X-ray absorption in GRB afterglows” at Deaths of massive stars as supernovae and
gamma-ray bursts (EWASS2013, Turku, July 2013)
“How dust is formed in supernovae – observational constraints” at Dust in core-collapse supernovae near &
far: understanding its formation and evolution (Ascona, November 2012)
“Origin of the X-ray absorption in GRBs” at Fermi/Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts Conference 2012 (Munich,
July 2012)
“What do the X-ray afterglows of GRBs tell us about the cosmic evolution of dust?” at
SIROKKO/DISCO: Dust in Space: Consequences and Origins (Corsica, November 2011)
Invited review “Probing dust using gamma-ray bursts from the local universe to high redshift” at GRBs
as probes: from the progenitor’s environment to the high redshift universe (Como, May 2011)
Invited talk “High redshift dust” at Wittfest: origins & evolution of dust (Toledo, OH, October 2010)
Invited talk “Understanding extragalactic dust with X-shooter” at The first year of science with X-shooter
(Como, October 2010)
Invited talk “Understanding gamma-ray bursts” at The transient universe; from exoplanets to hypernovae
(Dublin, September 2010)
PROFESSIONAL ORGANISATIONS
Member of the Institute of Physics
Member of the IAU
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
Supporting Member Kvinder i Fysik (Women in Physics in Denmark)
FUNDING GRANTS
Funding
Marie Curie fellowship (EU 2015–2017, €200 000 for D. Perley, PI)
Marie Curie fellowship (EU 2014–2016, €230 000 for S. Hönig, PI)
European funding award (KU 2014, 500 000 DKK [€67 000], PI)
Instrument Center for Danish Astrophysics Grant (IDA 2013, 40000 DKK [€5300], PI)
European funding award (KU 2011, 500 000 DKK [€67 000], PI)
Marie Curie fellowship (EU 2011–2013, €214 000 for T. Krühler, PI)
DARK (Danish National Research Foundation 2010–2015, 70 000 000 DKK [€9 300 000], Co-I)
Brahe Programme (Danish National Research Foundation 2007–2010, 3 500 000 DKK [€470 000],
Co-I)
DARK (Danish National Research Foundation 2005–2010, 44 000 000 DKK [€5 870 000], Co-I)
PhD fellowship (Forbairt Ireland 1996–1999, €7500, PI)
Observing Time:
—typical oversubscription rates for major space-based facilities is a factor of 6–10.
Time awarded in open competition on satellites as PI: >300 ks (2 Spitzer, 3 XMM-Newton, 1 Chandra)
Time awarded at the Gemini telescope and ESO Very Large Telescopes: >400 hrs
Other ESO telescopes and the Nordic Optical Telescope: >100 nights.
Overall:
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (PI & Co-I)
Spitzer Space Telescope (PI & Co-I)
Green Bank Telescope (PI)
Rapid Eye Mount telescope (PI)
Chandra X-ray Observatory (PI & Co-I)
XMM-Newton (PI & Co-I)
ALMA Pathfinder EXperiment (Co-I)
Australia Telescope Compact Array (Co-I)
Gemini Observatory (PI & Co-I)
ESO Very Large Telescope (PI & Co-I)
Stella Robotic Telescope (PI)
Nordic Optical Telescope (PI & Co-I)
Infrared Space Observatory (Co-I)
Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (Co-I)
Hubble Space Telescope (Co-I)
PRESS COVERAGE AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
There are many articles in major newspapers (Danish and international) describing my research (e.g.
Politiken, Jyllandsposten, Berlingske Tidende, Weekendavisen, Kristeligt Dagblad), TV and radio programmes and
interviews (e.g. DR1, DK4, TV2, BBC, TG4 (Ireland), RTE Radio 1 (Ireland), EuroNews Futuris), evan a
cartoon (http://www.popsci.com/my-god-its-full-dust) featuring my research, as well as articles written by
me and other co-authors in popular science publications. I have not maintained an exhaustive list,
however, some examples of articles are listed below from the past year.
Selected Danish press in the past year:
Politiken: “Så langt er der til Saurons Øje”
dr.dk: “Universets ældste støvfyldte galakse er fundet”
Weekendavisen: “Galaktisk besked fra tidernes morgen” and
“Det sorte hul i Galaksen NGC4151”
Information: “Forskningsmidler til kvinder øger ligestillingen”
Kvant: “Støvring omkring sort hul”
Ingeniøren “Afstanden til et sort hul målt af forskere fra Københavns Universitet” og “Overraskende dansk
bevis: Kosmisk støv i det tidlige univers”
Videnskab.dk: “Sorte huller bremser dannelsen af nye stjerner” and “Støv i ‘ung’ galakse ændrer opfattelsen
af universet lige efter Big Bang”
Some articles in the international press in the past year:
Washington Post (USA): “One of the youngest, most distant galaxies ever observed is surprisingly mature
(and dusty)”
ABC News (Australia): “Ancient galaxy sheds light on dust in early Universe”
Le Scienze (Italy): “Una galassia primordiale già "matura" e ricca di polveri”
National Geographic (USA): “Astronomers Find a Dusty Galaxy That Shouldn’t Exist”
LA Times (USA): “Mysterious, dust-filled galaxy seems very mature for its age”
The Hindu (India): “Ancient galaxy sheds light on dust as starmaker”
Ars Technica (USA): “Surprisingly mature galaxy discovered in the early Universe”
NBC News (USA): “How Far Is the ‘Eye of Sauron’? Astronomers Find Out”
Der Standard (Austria): “‘Saurons Auge’ hilft bei der Distanzermittlung”
New Scientist (USA): “Black holes light up dark energy”
Science News (USA): “Black holes offer new cosmic ruler”
Irish Examiner (Ireland): “We now know how far it is to the Eye of Sauron”
Natural History (USA): “New Cosmic Ruler”