Andy Boston

Andy Boston has a broad range of research interests in both nuclear spectroscopy, the development of nuclear instrumentation and the applications of nuclear physics. He obtained his BSc (1995) and PhD (1998) in Nuclear Physics on the topic of “Neutron-deficient Tellurium isotopes using a large gamma-ray spectrometer plus ancillary detectors” from the University of Liverpool. Subsequent to this he was appointed as a post doctoral research in 1998 before being appointed as a lecturer in Physics during 2001.

Andy leads a group working on the development, characterisation and commissioning of gamma-ray sensors for a number of large nuclear physics projects including the Advanced Gamma Tracking (AGATA) project. This work involves the optimisation of digital Pulse Shape Analysis algorithms and the modelling of gamma-ray interactions in order to fully understand the response function of highly segmented germanium detectors. Andy is a member of the AGATA management board with responsibility for Pulse Shape Analysis and detector characterisation.

Andy continues to lead a research programme to study extremely neutron deficient nuclei with A~100-130 mapping regions of deformation utilising both radioactive ion beam facilities and state-of-the-art gamma-ray spectrometers.

Finally, Andy leads the development, characterisation and commissioning of a number of state-of-the-art planar semiconductor detector devices for use in a diverse range of applications in nuclear physics, medical, security and environmental gamma-ray imaging.