About
Professor Tony Bird is a member of the astronomy group within the School of Physics and Astronomy. He is currently deputy head of school (education). His research interests are in the area of gamma-ray astronomy, especially instrumentation and the translation of astronomy techniques for terrestrial application such as security and medical imaging.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- My main research interest is in instrumentation and data analysis for high energy astrophysics.
- I am a co-investigator for the IBIS imaging telescope on the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL space telescope mission, operating successfully since its launch in 2001.
- I am responsible for compilation of the all-sky survey from IBIS.
- I am also working on data from a number of currently operating gamma-ray telescopes and helping to design the next-generation of space telescopes.
Current research
Professor Tony Bird’s research focus is on astronomy in the X-ray and soft gamma-ray wavebands.
Professor Bird is a co-investigator for the IBIS imager on the ESA INTEGRAL mission, in which has been operational since 2002. He has led the team producing the main survey catalogs from INTEGRAL, the latest of which was released in 2016. He also works on the development on new instrumental and data analysis techniques. Among the many sources in the survey catalogs, Prof. Bird’s personal research interest is in the Supergiant Fast X-ray Binaries, a new class of highly variable binary star system discovered by INTEGRAL. Prof Bird was involved in the technical development of several of the main components of IBIS, and a member of the calibration team.
Prof Bird is involved in the transfer of astronomical technology to other applications, including homeland security and medical imaging. He recently participated in a successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership with local company Symetrica as part of this programme, and led two Space Research and Innovation Network for Technology (SPRINT) programmes.
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
Prof Bird was previously Director of Programmes for Physics and Astronomy, and is now Deputy Head of School for Education. He has taught courses on Medical Physics and Applied Nuclear Physics, and currently leads the mission design element of the Tenerife Field Trip for astronomy and space science students.
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
These are the public-facing activities you’d like people to know about.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
A chance to go into more detail about your work and interests.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.