DEAR

The ESA contracted DEAR (Dusty Environment Application Research) consortium addresses systematic development and testing of lunar dust removal strategies on optics, mechanisms and astronautic components (e.g. space suits). Five European institutes combine forces in this project to enable future European contributions to Moon surface exploration missions, with industry consultation.

HEAVYMETAL

ERC Synergy Grant funded collaboration between UCD and teams in Denmark, Germany and Belfast, helping to explain explosions of nuclear matter (know as kilinova) by spectroscopically dissecting and connecting them quantitatively to the physical properties of the neutron star merger. The team will probe the origin of the heavy elements, and delineate the nuclear and astrophysical pathways that created them. For the first time ever, they are trying to decipher the details of the observed spectra and gain unprecedented insight into the physical processes of the merger. 

VERITAS

The VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) collaboration is a ground-based array of optical reflectors for gamma-ray astronomy, located at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Amado, Arizona. Consisting of scientists from 20 Institutions including UCD, VERITAS is the world’s most sensitive very-high-energy gamma-ray observatory, and it detects gamma rays via the extremely brief flashes of blue "Cherenkov" light they create when they are absorbed in the Earth's atmosphere.

The Thomas Preston Centre for Fundamental Physics

Established in honour of Thomas Preston, a distinguished Professor of Natural Philosophy at UCD, whose pioneering work foresaw the discovery of electron spin and was at the very frontier of physics research at the close of the 19th century. Bringing together researchers working across the broad spectrum, the Centre is a site of nucleation for cutting-edge research at the forefront of modern fundamental physics.

EIRSAT-1

The 'Educational Irish Research Satellite' EIRSAT-1 is  a 2U cubesat and Ireland's first satellite. It was designed, built, tested by a team of UCD students with support from academic and professional staff. It will also be operated by the team at UCD. The project is supported by the Education Office of the European Space Agency, under the educational Fly your Satellite! Programme.

UCD C-Space

The establishment of UCD C-Space was an important step in Ireland’s journey to develop a strong and sustainable space industry. A first-of-its-kind dedicated hub of excellence for interdisciplinary collaborative space-related research, innovation and education in Ireland, this key national resource for space expertise and training is underpinned by a cross-cutting industry support facility, to ensure a positive impact for society and the economy. 

Parameter Space Limited

A spin-out from the UCD School of Physics supported by ESA, Parameter Space Limited developed the Gaia Added Value Interface Platform (GAVIP) to facilitate analysis of data by the scientific community. The platform was deployed at the European Space Astronomy Centre in Spain. Additionally, it developed a set of advanced tools to analyse transient sources such as supernovae, as part of the Gaia Added Value Interface for Transient Analysis (GAVITA) project.

UCD C-QuEST

UCD Centre for Quantum Engineering, Science and Technology, bringing together quantum expertise including leading experts in physics, electronic and electrical engineering and computer science, and providing a gateway for industry partners.  

The UCD Relativity Group

The UCD Relativity group use Einstein’s theory of General Relativity to study black holes and other sources of gravitational waves. A major focus of the group is using Black Hole Perturbation Theory to model small mass ratio binaries. These are key sources for the forthcoming European Space Agency’s LISA mission. The group are full members of the LISA consortium and are lead developers of the Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit.

Radio Galaxy Zoo: LOFAR

'Radio Galaxy Zoo: LOFAR' gives the public the opportunity to help find galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centres. The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope, with one telescope located in Birr, Co. Offaly, is continuing its huge survey of the radio sky following its discovery of over 300,000 new galaxies. These radio emissions are produced by huge jets of matter ejected deep into space by black holes, as they consume dust and gas. Dr John Quinn, UCD School of Physics, is the Irish lead on the citizen science project.

UCD Computational Mathematics Centre

Researchers are involved in the fundamental mathematical theories that underpin wireless communication and internet cryptography, while others are involved in the development of simulation algorithms, which are computer models of complex phenomena in Mathematical Biology, Fluid Mechanics, and General Relativity. 

The UCD Experimental Particle Physics group

Established at UCD in 2002 to study particle interactions at the highest possible collision energies, exploring new areas in fundamental physics never seen before. The Group's work is carried out within international collaborations of scientists, operating large detectors at particle colliders such as those at Fermilab near Chicago and at CERN. The group participate in the CMS and LHCb experiments at CERN, at the proton-proton Large Hadron Collider.

The Spectroscopy Group

GLORIA: The world's first free and open access network of robotic telescopes

EIRSAT-1: Ireland's first satellite

Evidence of recent flows of liquid water on the surface of Mars

Discovery of Light Associated with a Gravitational Wave Source

Shaw Prize awarded to Michael Perryman for his role in the conception and design of ESA’s Hipparcos and Gaia missions

Prof Morgan Fraser

Royal Society-SFI Research Fellow, UCD School of Physics in UCD, exploring the ultimate fate of the most massive stars as core-collapse supernovae, and find new classes of extragalactic transients.

Dr Rebeca Garcia Lopez

Ad Astra Fellow specialising in star and planet formation, PI of the guaranteed time observation (GTO) program of young stellar objects with the ESO GRAVITY, Irish representative in the ESO user's committee.

Dr Deirdre Coffey

An observational astrophysicist in the field of star and planet formation, involved in several European collaborations, using world-class telescopes in space (Hubble, JWST) and on ground (VLT, Gemini and ALMA), National Project Manager for Ariel. 

Dr Andrew Mitchell

Theoretical physicist working broadly in the area of condensed matter, specialises in Theoretical nanoelectronics, leads the theoretical nanoelectronics group as part of C-QuEST.

Dr Adrian Ottewill

Prof Emma Sokell

Head of UCD School of Physics, specialising in collisional atomic / molecular physics, specifically photoelectron spectroscopy highly charged ions laser produced plasmas.

Dr Antonio Martin-Carrillo

Ad Astra Fellow, specialises in the transient Universe using space observatories and ground-based telescopes such as UCD’s Watcher robotic telescope, collaborator on the Astropy project, member of the INTEGRAL group, the ATHENA X-ray space observatory and the THESEUS space telescope.

Dr John Quinn

Leads the High-Energy Astrophysics Group at UCD. He has been involved in gamma-ray astronomy for 25 over years, member of the international VERITAS collaboration, the Cherenkov Telescope Array project, co-investigator on I-LOFAR.