Professor in Cosmology

Pavilion B, Room B2.07
Centre for Mathematical Sciences
Tel: +44 1223 337896
Fax: +44 1223 764984
Email: E.P.S.Shellard'at'damtp.cam.ac.uk ('at' to be replaced by @)

My research endeavours to advance the confrontation between theories of the early universe and empirical cosmology, focussing especially on the primordial fluctuations for large-scale structure formation. Ongoing investigations of the science that can be extracted from the cosmic microwave sky includes work on critical tests to distinguish between inflationary models or even to identify the distinct signatures of cosmic defects. I lead a nongaussianity project within the Planck Surveyor satellite consortium. I have a longstanding interest in phase transitions in the early universe which can form cosmic strings or other topological defects. Among their dramatic observational consequences which I study are the origin of dark matter axions, the existence of stable superconducting string loops (vortons) associated with high energy cosmic rays or other phenomena, and primordial backgrounds of gravitational waves which may lie within the range of the forthcoming generation of detectors.

Since its inception in 1997, I have been coordinating COSMOS, the UK National Cosmology Supercomputer, an essential tool for quantitative progress in theoretical cosmology.