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I am a PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick. My supervisor is Elizabeth Stanway.

Research

My research looks at the environments and progenitors of extragalactic transients, in particular gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) - among the most luminous electromagnetic events in the Universe. By studying the host galaxies where these explosions occur, we learn about the stellar populations and conditions which are capable of producing them. GRBs show great variety in terms of their duration, light-curves, isotropic energy and spectral shapes (manifesting as short, long, ultra long, low luminosity, dark bursts and more). The study of GRB environments continues to prove invaluable in determining the origin of this variety. More recently, I have looked at identifying progenitor pathways of supernovae and GRBs in BPASS (http://bpass.auckland.ac.nz), exploring the consequences of matching BPASS rate predictions to observations.

Publications

First author

Chrimes et al. (2020): Binary population synthesis models for core-collapse gamma-ray burst progenitors - You can find the associated press release here.

Chrimes et al. (2019b): The case for a high-redshift origin of GRB 100205A

Chrimes et al. (2019a): Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope observations of dark gamma-ray bursts and their host galaxies

Chrimes et al. (2018): Investigating a population of infrared-bright gamma-ray burst host galaxies

Co-author

Stanway et al. (2020): Evaluating the impact of binary parameter uncertainty on stellar population properties

Stevance et al. (2020): A systematic aging method I: HII regions D118 and D119 in NGC 300, submitted

Gompertz et al. (2020): Searching for Electromagnetic Counterparts to Gravitational-wave Merger Events with the Prototype Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO-4), submitted

Conferences, Talks & Posters

• Talk - Gamma-Ray Burst Central Engines with Binary Population Synthesis Models: The 30th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, University of Portsmouth, UK, December 2019.

• STFC Data Intensive, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Summer School, University of Sussex, UK, July 2019.
• Talk - Exploring Progenitor Pathways for Long Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts in Binary Stellar Evolution Models: The Deaths and Afterlives of Stars, Spring Symposium 2019, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA, April 2019. You can view the talk here.
• Poster - The Host Galaxies of Dark Gamma-Ray Bursts: Insights from Chandra and HST: European Week of Astronomy and Space Science/National Astronomy Meeting, Liverpool, UK, April 2018. You can find the poster here.
• Talk - Investigating a Population of Infrared-Bright GRB Host Galaxies: National Astronomy Meeting, University of Hull, UK, July 2017.
• STFC Introductory Summer School for Astronomy, University of Hull, UK, August 2016.

Teaching & Outreach

I have taught first year undergraduates in the core physics laboratory, and the first year electronics labs, for the past 3 years. I am an associate fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE).

I am also involved in a number of outreach activities, including planetarium events at the University and local schools, departmental open days at the University, and in 2016, I participated in a Christmas public lecture at Warwick Arts Centre - where I played the part of a neutron star!

If you want an artistic visual representation of my PhD research (well, of this paper at least), check out the animation I made below:

Courses Taken at Warwick

MPAGS: Background reading, the Distant Universe, Statistics, Astrophysical Techniques, STFC data intensive summer school

PGCTSS: Doctoral Skills 1,2 and 3, Team Working in a Research Environment, Science Communication, one term of level 4 French with the language school

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Start date: Oct 2016, STFC Grant Code: 1763016

FRAS, MInstP. A member of the BPASS, GOTO and ENGRAVE teams.