Hello! I am Richard, a 2nd year PhD student at the Institute of Astronomy. I am interested in planetary dynamics and its applications to planetary habitability and post-main sequence planetary systems. I am also interested in Astrobiology and understanding the role of impacts in origins of life scenarios. Here’s map of places I’ve given a talk!

Research groups

I am a member of 3 exciting research groups:

• Rocky Worlds: WD Planetary Group. Investigating the formation of planets, planetary composition and planetary systems around white dwarfs.
• Planetary Astrochemistry Lab. We experimentally simulate planetary environments and use them to test prebiotic chemistry.
• Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe. We aim to develop a deeper understanding of life, its emergence, and its distribution in the Universe.

Recent projects

My most recent work was investigating the following question - Can comets deliver prebiotic molecules to rocky exoplanets? which has recently been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. See the University of Cambridge press release here. I recently presented a poster on this project at Molecular Origins of Life, Munich 2023, which you can find here!