Professor John Quinn
John Quinn is an Associate Professor in the School of Physics at University College Dublin (UCD) and has been involved in the field of ground-based gamma-ray astronomy for 25 years. His PhD was conducted at UCD, under the supervision of Prof. David Fegan. and as a predoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory’s Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona, under the supervision of
Prof. Trevor Weekes, where the atmospheric Cherenkov technique was pioneered and the first detections
of astronomical sources of VHE gamma rays were achieved.
After completing a postdoctoral fellowship, also at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, Prof. Quinn returned to UCD in 1998 to join the academic staff. His research group in UCD has played a significant role in the development and ongoing operation of the VERITAS gamma-ray observatory in Arizona, and he is an active member of the Irish CTA consortium. His scientific
interests include studies of relativistic jets from Active Galactic Nuclei, and galactic high-energy sources. Prof. Quinn is a co-investigator on the I-LOFAR project and was a member of the team that recently installed a LOFAR radio telescope in Birr, Co. Offaly. Prof. Quinn is also involved in the delivery of both lecture and laboratory courses in Physics and Astrophysics at UCD.
CTA Public Event in Dunsink Observatory
Public Open Night Wednesday October 11th
Two talks on the Cherenkov Telescope Array. Gates open at 7:00 pm
Book here
New frontiers in science with the Cherenkov Telescope Array.
Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), will be the Major Global Observatory for very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy over the next decade and beyond. The scientific potential of CTA is extremely broad: from understanding the role of Relativistic Cosmic Particles to the search for Dark Matter. CTA is an explorer of the extreme universe, probing environments from the immediate neighbourhood of Black Holes to Cosmic Voids on the largest scales. In my talk I will overview the most exiting discoveries that CTA should be able to do.
The Cherenkov Telescope Array: Instrumentation for Exploring the Very High Energy Universe
Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a next-generation astronomical facility, currently in the design and prototyping phase, for exploring the Very High Energy (VHE) gamma-ray Universe. The energy range covered by CTA will be from 20 GeV to 300 TeV, allowing for the study of nature’s most powerful particle accelerators, associated with black holes, neutron stars and supernova remnants,
in unprecedented detail (for comparison, the LHC at CERN accelerates protons to energies up to 14 TeV). CTA is being developed by a global consortium of scientists and will have two observatories, one in the northern hemisphere on La Palma in the Canary Islands, and the other in the southern hemisphere at ESO’s Paranal site in Chile. Gamma-ray telescopes are usually placed on satellites in space to get above the Earth’s atmosphere, but CTA will actually use the atmosphere to detect gamma rays via the faint flashes of blue Cherenkov light that are produced when gamma rays are destroyed through interactions with air molecules. In this talk an overview will be given of the CTA telescopes and how they work, and the significant role Irish scientists played in developing this exciting young branch of astronomy will be highlighted.
Annual Hamilton Walk – 16th October 2017
The Annual Hamilton Walk, in association with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Maynooth University, will take place during Maths Week Ireland on Monday 16th October starting from Dunsink Observatory. Advance Booking is essential for this event. More information including booking details can be found here.
The walk commemorates Sir William Rowan Hamilton’s famous creation of a strange new number system, called Quaternions, on the banks of the Royal Canal in Dublin on October 16, 1843. Quaternions now play a fundamental role in computer games and animation, special effects in movies, space navigation, physics, engineering and many other areas. The walk will retrace Hamilton’s steps from Dunsink Observatory to Broom Bridge in Cabra where he had his Eureka moment.
Hamilton performed a piece of mathematical graffiti by scratching his quaternion formulas on the canal bridge. In an act of mathematical vandalism, Hamilton opened up a whole new mathematical landscape where mathematicians could now feel free to conceive new algebraic number systems that were not shackled by the rules of ordinary numbers in arithmetic. Hamilton freed algebra from arithmetic and he was called the Liberator of Algebra.
Photo of MIRI Group Meeting – September 2017
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is due for launch in 2018 and DIAS convened the team working on one of its major instruments MIRI in Dublin (13th to 15th September) to finalize their plans for using the biggest telescope ever put into space. DIAS helped build some of JWST’s hardware and is now developing software to analyze its data.
Mario De Lucia
Name: Mario De Lucia
Title: PhD student
E-mail: delucia@cp.dias.ie
Phone: +353-1-4406656
Address: Astronomy & Astrophysics Section, 31 Fitzwilliam Place Dublin 2, Ireland
Eoin Baldwin
Name: Eoin Baldwin
Title: PhD student
E-mail: baldwin@cp.dias.ie
Phone: +353-1-4406656
Address: Astronomy & Astrophysics Section, 31 Fitzwilliam Place Dublin 2, Ireland
DIAS Scholar wins 2017 Earnshaw Medal
Congratulations to Anton Feeney-Johansson on being awarded the Earnshaw medal for best undergraduate physics thesis in Ireland for 2017.
Anton carried out his undergraduate project at the school of Cosmic Physics in DIAS and was mentored by Irish Research Council scholar Dr. Eamon O’Gorman. Anton’s work focused on measuring the temperature of the atmosphere of the famous red supergiant, Antares. To do this he used data from the Very Large Array in New Mexico, which is one of the most powerful radio telescopes in the world. Anton is due to start his PhD in radio astrophysics at DIAS in September 2017 and we’re looking forward to have him on board.
The Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico
Dr Ivan Colantoni
Name: Dr Ivan Colantoni
Title: Post Doc Researcher
E-Mail: ivan@cp.dias.ie
Address: Astronomy & Astrophysics Section, 31 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2 D02-XF86
Biographical Sketch : Ivan Colantoni graduated from University of Rome “Tor Vergata” in Materials Science in 2009. He obtained his PhD degree in Physics in the same University in 2012. He then worked in the Physics Department at University of Rome “Tor Vergata” from 2012 to 2014 with Prof. Ivan Davoli, in the Physics Department at Sapienza University of Rome from 2014 to 2016 with Dr. Marco Vignati, in the Italian Research National Council Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologie (CNR IFN, Rome) during 2017 with Dr. Maria Gabriella Castellano. In half of 2017 he was appointed as Post Doc Researcher at the Astronomy and Astrophysics Section of the School of Cosmic Physics (DIAS, Dublin) with Prof. Tom Ray in the new MKIDs group.
Publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ivan_Colantoni
Dunsink Observatory – Culture Night 2017
Dunsink Observatory is joining in the celebrations of Culture Night on Friday 22nd September 2017.
The Observatory will be open from 7:00pm to 11:00pm and during the evening, visitors will be able to view the historic observatory building, which were once the home of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, world renowned mathematician and scientist.
Visitors will also be able to see the historic Grubb telescope and hear the remarkable story of the Dublin company that became one of the greatest telescope makers in the World. Weather permitting, there will be various smaller telescopes on display for star-gazing.
The talks are not suitable for children under 12.
Title: Imaging Stars And Searching For Exoplanets At Radio Wavelengths
Speaker: Dr Eamonn O’Gorman
News & Events
- Photos from DIAS School of Cosmic Physics Statutory Public Lecture 2017 (19th October 2017)
- RTE documentary on LOFAR – Thursday 19th October
- Ireland to Join the European Southern Observatory
- Dunsink Observatory Public Open Night – Maths Week 2017
- 2017-10-03, 3pm, Prof. Roberto Maiolino (University of Cambridge), The multiple routes of galaxy transformation
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Hallowe’en Night 2017 – Tuesday 31st October, 18:30-20:00 : Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Matter) eventbrite.ie/e/dont-be-afra… #DarkMatterDay Retweeted by DIAS Astrophysics
Don't miss the @I_LOFAR documentary @RTEOne tonight at 10:15 #dias_astronomy is part of @I_LOFAR consortium twitter.com/DIAS_Dublin/st…