I am a Professor of Astrophysics  in the Astrophysics Research Centre of the School of Maths and Physics at Queen's University Belfast. I am a previous holder of a European Young Investigator (EURYI) Award and PPARC Advanced Fellowship. My previous positions were at  the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge and the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes on La Palma.   A CV can be found here. 

My group works on supernovae and the deaths of massive stars. We are involved in two large  international projects to study supernovae and the transient Universe.  We are partners in the Pan-STARRS project to scientifically exploit the 3.5 year survey of the PS1 Science consortium.  We are also involved in the ESO NTT Large Programme "Supernova Variety and Nucleosynthesis Yields" , which is run together with our VLT ToO Progamme to discover the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae.

For the last decade I have been searching for the progenitors core-collapse supernovae in images of galaxies taken before explosion, much like the one shown above, that I took with the Hubble Space Telescope. The latest results of this work have been published in Smartt, Eldridge, Crockett & Maund (2009). My review article on this topic for the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics,  be accessed here : "Progenitors of core-collapse supernovae", S.J. Smartt, 2009, ARA&A, 47, 63

Astrophysics Research Centre
School of Mathematics and Physics
Queen's University Belfast,
Belfast BT7 1NN,
Northern Ireland UK
Tel (direct)  +44 2890  971245
Tel (recept.) +44 2890  973941
Email:S.Smartt_AT_qub_ac_uk
Directions to my office : 1st floor of main Physics Building, Office F013