Date:- 8th March

Location:- Smith Art Gallery & Museum

Speaker:- Dr Alasdair Taylor of Glasgow University

Title:- Optical Developments for LISA

Biography:- Alasdair’s interest in Astronomy stems from childhood watching shows like The Sky At Night and Horizon. This interest didn’t become a hobby until he met Paul Kent and Douglas Cooper while studying at Glasgow University. He - like many others - remembers seeing some of Douglas’ photographs and thinking, ‘I want to be doing that!’. Had someone told him the cost at the same time, he might have reconsidered. Once finished his undergraduate degree Alasdair was fortunate to stumble into a PhD in a small group within the Gravitational Waves Research field at Glasgow. He spent 4 years working on fibre optics and imaging systems for space qualification. Once finished he moved to Coherent Scotland where he built, designed and tested a variety of laser systems. In January this year, he returned to Glasgow after 5 years away to continue the work he started for the space-based gravitational wave detector known as LISA.