CV: Richard Massey

Research overview

The night sky contains a huge amount of stars, galaxies and dust. Everything we see is made of the same basic "baryonic" material as our bodies, the air we breathe, and the computer that you're looking at. We understand it fairly well. However, mounting evidence from several sources now agrees that this is only a few percent of the total amount of stuff in the Universe.

Six times as much mass is in the form of invisible "dark matter". This interacts with ordinary baryons only through the force of gravity. It does not interact through electromagnetism, and therefore neither emits nor reflects light. It can be seen only indirectly — for example, because its additional gravity makes galaxies rotate faster than otherwise possible. One potential candidate for dark matter is the least massive of the (as-yet unobserved) supersymmetric particles.

Three times more common than dark matter is the even more mysterious "dark energy". This acts as a repulsive force on very large scales, in a tug-of-war against the attraction of gravity. The universe has been expanding since the Big Bang, but dark energy is now accelerating that expansion. Its properties will eventually decide the fate of the universe.

Unfortunately, almost all current scientific knowledge concerns only the (few percent) baryons. The extra ingredients are challenging our fundamental theories of particle physics and General Relativity. I'm currently focussing on the nature of dark matter, mainly via the indirect effect of "gravitational lensing". As with any new frontier, the first thing to do is to map it out and look at the lie of the land.

Research positions

Public understanding of science

My work on dark matter maps and bullet clusters has appeared in the Guiness book of World Records, London Science Museum and New York MoMA. It has also been published on the front pages of Nature, The Independent newspaper and the BBC news web site, as well as in many other newspapers and magazines.

I have appeared on seven TV documentaries for National Geographic, NOVA, and cable channels Einstein TV/bluesci. I have also been interviewed by radio stations throughout the world — from the morning breakfast show on KiwiFM, to the BBC world service and NPR Science Friday. I have delivered invited public lectures at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, and been commissioned to write an article for BBC News Online.

As an International Year of Astronomy special project, I took part in an expedition to the West African island of Príncipe, where Sir Arthur Eddington observed the 1919 total solar eclipse and proved General Relativity. On the anniversary, we unveiled an informational plaque at the site, and we also installed an exhibition in São Tomé.

Closer to home, I have visited science societies and judged science fairs at local schools for several years. I took part in the 2003 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London. I have helped public observing nights at both the IoA in Cambridge and IfA in Edinburgh, and hosted at the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Teaching

Awarded grants and telescope time

I have acquired major imaging surveys on the WHT, Keck II, Subaru and Hubble Space telescopes. Through various projects, I have also accumulated observing experience on the AAT, Keck I, UKIRT, and the UK Schmidt telescopes. Additional grants not associated with telescope time include:

• Co-I of Royal Astronomical Society grant with P.I. Gisa Wezskalnys (£3,000)
  and International Astronomical Union IYA2009 Special Global Project (£3,000)
  "Celebrating the 1919 eclipse at Príncipe".
  
• Co-I of Royal Observatory Edinburgh STFC Rolling Grant with P.I. John Peacock
  "Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Edinburgh".
  
• Principal Investigator of European Union FP7-PEOPLE grant IRG-208994 (€100,000)
  "Understanding the Dark Universe with 3D Weak Gravitational Lensing".
  
• Co-I of NASA HST grant AR-11747 with P.I. Joel Berge ($50,000)
  "Shapelet analysis of the COSMOS field".
  
• Co-I of NASA HST grant AR-11769 with P.I. Jason Rhodes ($70,000)
  "Mitigating Image Persistence in WFC3 NIR Observations to Allow Weak Lensing Shape Measurements".
  
• STFC Advanced Fellowship (£524,546).
  
• Co-I of JPL DRDF grant 2008-112 with P.I. Jason Rhodes ($160,000)
  "Ameliorating Non-linear Detector Effects in Weak Gravitational Lensing Measurements".
  
• Principal Investigator of NASA HST grant AR-10964 ($50,000)
  "Correcting effects of Charge Transfer Inefficiency in the ACS Wide Field Camera".
• Collaborator on Beyond Einstein Foundation Science grant N5-BEFS05-0024 with P.I. Jason Rhodes ($280,000)
  "Weak Gravitational Lensing Using Multi-band Imaging".
• Collaborator on NASA grant ATP04-0000-0067 with P.I. David Goldberg ($274,127)
  "Galaxy Flexion — Gravitational Lensing to Second Order".

I have also acted as a referee for academic journals and a panel member of Time Allocation/Funding Review Committees.

Recent invited talks