Projects per year
Personal profile
Overview
Prof Pinfield is a research astronomer and lecturer in physics astronomy and maths. His main research interests are in the areas of brown dwarfs, extra-solar planets and cool stars. He is the leader of an FP7 Initial Training Network (RoPACS) that focuses on planets and cool stars, and is co-PI of a >100 night planet transit survey as part of this network. He also leads projects exploiting large-scale near-mid infrared sky surveys (UKIDSS, VISTA and WISE) for ultra-cool science. In addition he carries out research to foster ongoing developments for future space-based studies of extra-solar planets, and collaborates in this area with Astrium (Europe's largest space engineering company) in Stevenage.
Research interests
- Searching for cool star planets and eclipsing systems using the transit technique
- Revealing the nature of brown dwarfs from population studies
- Understanding ultra-cool atmospheres using benchmark brown dwarfs
- Measuring the properties of cool stars
- Radial velocity techniques for planet detection
- Detection of exoplanet reflected/emitted light
- Fostering the science of future space observatories (e.g. ESA Cosmic Vision)
Teaching specialisms
- Undergraduate final year research projects (coordinator and provider)
- Astrophysics lectures, including in extra-solar planets and brown dwarfs
- Teacher training course at East-of-England Science Learning Centre "Bringing contemporary science to the classroom", helping teachers use modern astrophysics in their GCSE teaching
- Range of lecturing experience in physics astronomy and mathematics
Commercial and public engagement
- Collaboration with Astrium fostering Cosmic Vision related initiatives - Astrium are partners in Dr Pinfield's RoPACS network
- Offer joint research/industry final year undergraduate projects with Astrium
- Coordinating Nuffield bursary summer student projects in astronomy at UH (through SetPoint) - up to ~10 sixth form students supervised each summer (on 4 week projects)
- Public talks on astronomy, including European Astrofest 2012 and the Scandinavian Astronomy Society conference (2013)
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 14 Finished
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Hertfordshire Astronomy 2018-2021
Hardcastle, M. (PI), Jones, H. (CoI), Pinfield, D. (CoI), Thompson, M. (CoI), Gledhill, T. (CoI), Lucas, P. (CoI), Drew, J. (CoI), Napiwotzki, R. (CoI), Sarzi, M. (CoI), Brinks, E. (CoI), Smith, D. (CoI), Coppin, K. (CoI), Kaviraj, S. (CoI), Dale, J. (CoI), Krause, M. (CoI), Kobayashi, C. (CoI) & Ryan, S. (CoI)
1/04/18 → 31/03/21
Project: Other
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UH Centre for Astrophysics Research PATT - linked grant (2015-17)
Hardcastle, M. (PI), Drew, J. (CoI), Brinks, E. (Researcher), Thompson, M. (Researcher), Lucas, P. (Researcher), Jones, H. (Researcher), Coppin, K. (Researcher), Pinfield, D. (Researcher), Ryan, S. (Researcher), Burningham, B. (Researcher), Geach, J. (Researcher), Napiwotzki, R. (Researcher), Stevens, J. (Researcher), Gledhill, T. (Researcher) & Tuomi, M. (Researcher)
1/10/15 → 1/10/17
Project: Research
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Hertfordshire Astronomy 2015-18
Drew, J. (PI), Brinks, E. (Researcher), Chrysostomou, A. (Researcher), Cioni, M.-R. (Researcher), Coppin, K. (Researcher), Hardcastle, M. (Researcher), Jones, H. (CoI), Lucas, P. (Researcher), Pinfield, D. (CoI) & Thompson, M. (Researcher)
UKRI - Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
1/04/15 → 31/03/19
Project: Research
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CalExoPlan
Pinfield, D. (PI) & Burningham, B. (CoI)
European Commission (EC) - Horizon 2020
1/10/14 → 30/09/17
Project: Research
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CalExoPlan
Burningham, B. (PI) & Pinfield, D. (CoI)
European Commission (EC) - Horizon 2020
1/10/14 → 30/09/17
Project: Research
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The Gaia Ultracool Dwarf Sample – IV. GTC/OSIRIS optical spectra of Gaia late-M and L dwarfs
Cooper, W., Jones, H., Smart, R., Burningham, B., Pinfield, D. & Marocco, F., 5 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 33 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Primeval very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs -- VIII. The first age benchmark L subdwarf, a wide companion to a halo white dwarf
Zhang, Z. H., Raddi, R., Burgasser, A. J., Casewell, S. L., Smart, R. L., Galvez-Ortiz, M. C., Jones, H. R. A., Baig, S., Lodieu, N., Gauza, B., Pavlenko, Y. V., Jiao, Y. F., Zhao, Z. K., Zhou, S. Y. & Pinfield, D. J., 1 Sept 2024, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 533, 2, p. 1654–1669 16 p., stae1851.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile16 Downloads (Pure) -
The Gaiaultracool dwarf sample – V: the ultracool dwarf companion catalogue
Baig, S., Smart, R. L., Jones, H. R. A., Gagné, J., Pinfield, D. J., Cheng, G. & Moranta, L., 20 Aug 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 533, 4, p. 3784-3810 27 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile16 Downloads (Pure) -
A blue depression in the optical spectra of M dwarfs
Jones, H. R. A., Pavlenko, Y., Lyubchik, Y., Bessell, M., Allard, N. & Pinfield, D. J., 1 Jul 2023, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 523, 1, p. 1297-1309 13 p., stad1391.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile17 Downloads (Pure) -
Identifying and characterizing ultracool dwarfs ejected from post-encounter disintegrating systems
Yip, A. K. P., Kurtev, R., Pinfield, D. J., Marocco, F., Gromadzki, M. & Carballo-Bello, J. A., 1 Jun 2023, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 522, 2, p. 1669-1685 17 p., stad1037.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Downloads (Pure)