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Profile

Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and Supernumerary Research Fellow in Astrophysics at St John's College. Prior to this she was a Royal Society University Research Fellows, a Research Fellow of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and a Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford. She has been awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Astrophysics, the Royal Society's Rosalind Franklin Medal (2010), the Institute of Physics Bragg Medal (2012), and the Royal Astronomical Society's Darwin Lectureship (2015).

Professor Blundell’s research interests include the physics, formation, and life cycles of active galaxies, including their distribution throughout cosmic time and space. Her work also includes the study of  plasma jets that emit radio waves and move close to the speed of light. Her new venture in time-domain astrophysics includes obtaining detailed measurements of the prototypical microquasar, known as SS433. This project, called Global Jet Watch, includes the dedicated use of a world-unique collection of five 0.5-metre telescopes, whose observations are largely recorded by boarding school children at different longitudes around the world. 

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Interviewer

Professor Ard Louis, Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford.

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Select Publications

A Very Short Introduction to Black Holes (Oxford University Press, 2015)

Concepts in Thermal Physics (Oxford University Press, 2006), with Stephen Blundell

‘Fast launch speeds in radio flares, from a new determination of the intrinsic motions of SS 433's jet bolides’ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 461 (2016) 312-320

‘A very deep Chandra view of metals, sloshing and feedback in the Centaurus cluster of galaxies’ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 457 (2016) 82-109

‘Multiwavelength study of Cygnus A V. The hotspots in the lobe’, Astronomy & Astrophysics 574 (2015) ARTN A30

‘Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Field Amplification in the Jest of 4C74.26,’ Astrophysical Journal 806 (2015) ARTN 243

‘How Much Light Has Been Produced since the Universe Was Born? Finally, a Way to Measure It.’ Advances in Hellenic Astronomy During the IYA09 424 (2010) 344-349

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Academic Journeys

 
 

Academic Journey

 
 

After the PhD

 
 
 

Early Research on Optical Spectroscopy and Black Holes

 
 
 

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Faith & Scholarship

 
 

Psalms, the stars, and transcendance

 
 

On scientific truth and a "god of the gaps"

 
 

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Scholarly Research

 
 

A Very Short Introduction to Black Holes

 
 

On the formation of black holes

 
 
 

On Observation and Conjecture Regarding Black Holes

 
 

On observing a flaring event

 
 
 

On novas, heavy elements, and human existence

 
 

On introducing students in developing countries to telescopes and science

 
 
 

Winning the George Darwin Lectureship

 
 

On a network of world-wide observatories and optical spectroscopy

 
 
 

On Katherine's world-wide network of telescopes at Schools

 
 
 

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Academic Advice

 
 

How have you managed a marriage of two academic scientists?