Welcome to David Champion's work page

News

Weighing the planets MPIfR press release, CSIRO press release and ApJ paper.

Pulsar found with volunteer computing press release and Science paper.

Missing-link pulsar press release and Science paper.

Eccentric millisecond pulsar press release and Science paper.

Introduction

I am an astronomer working at the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie. I'm in the fundamental physics research group and work primarily on on radio data from the Effelsberg Radio Telescope for the European Pulsar Timing Array project. Additionally I work on various searching and timing projects using the Arecibo Observatory, Greenbank Telescope and Parkes Telescope.

I did my under-graduate degree at Bristol University in Physics with Astrophysics. In my final year I worked on computer simulations of the interaction of binary systems with a third similar mass body.

I worked at CERN for 4 months in the CHORUS group. I worked on software used to analyse the large quantity of data from the CHORUS experiment looking for neutrino oscillations.

In 2000 - 2001 I worked at the Rutherford Appleton Lab in the ISIS (neutron spallation source) department for the University of Liverpool. I was involved with the TOSCA (inelastic neutron spectroscopy) and eVS (deep inelastic neutron spectroscopy) instruments. I also worked on software for the analysis of inelastic neutron spectroscopy data.

Before starting my PhD I completed my MSc at Queen's University Belfast in opto-electronics and optical information processing. Towards the end of the course I spent 4 months at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Tenerife where I worked on mapping the local interstellar medium using interstellar reddening. As part of the project I used the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope on La Palma.

For my PhD I went to Jodrell Bank Observatory run by the University of Manchester. My research was based on pulsar searching and timing using the Arecibo Radio Telescope.

Following my PhD I was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada fellow (supplemented by the Canadian Space Agency) working at McGill University in the pulsar research group. I worked on radio data and X-ray pulsar data, in particular a deep survey for pulsars using the Arecibo Radio Telescope.

Before working for the MPIfR I worked for the Australia Telescope National Facility division of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation for two years concentrating on data from the Parkes Telescope for the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project.

On the following pages is a little about my research, my CV / Resume, and some links.

E-mail: davidjohnchampion@gmail.com