Timothy Sumner
Encyclopedia
Timothy J. Sumner is Professor of Experimental Physics at Imperial College London
He is a member of the UK Dark Matter Collaboration
, and Sumner's interests cover a wide range of astronomy
-related fields, focusing particularly on particle physics
.
He received his degree in Physics from Sussex University in 1974, and his DPhil in Experimental Physics from Sussex University, for work carried out jointly with the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble. He joined the Cosmic-Ray and Space Physics group at Imperial College in 1979, and in 1984 became the project manager for flight hardware for the x-ray satellite ROSAT. He received a Group Achievement award from NASA for the project in 1990
He became involved in the search for the direct demonstration of the existence of galactic dark matter
, known as "Weakly Interacting Massive Particles". (WIMP). He is a member of the UK Dark Matter Collaboration (one of four groups around the world looking for WIMPs) and was its spokesperson in the UK for 2002-07. New Scientist
described him as "leading the search for galactic dark matter, including axions, at Imperial College London in the UK" He is now Principal Investigator of the ZEPLIN III dark matter experiment. He also leads the ELIXIR proposal for next generation instruments. In addition to ROSAT, he has worked work on the space missions Gravity Probe B, which confirmed several prediction of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, LISA, a gravitational wave observatory in space, and STEP, a mission to test the equivalence principle in space. He is also associated with GAUGE, a new proposal to the European Space Agency.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and of the Royal Astronomical Society, and holds the position of V ice-Chair , COSPAR - Commission H
lists him as havinghad 132 peer-reviewed publications. The ones with the highest citation counts are:
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
He is a member of the UK Dark Matter Collaboration
UK Dark Matter Collaboration
The U.K. Dark Matter Collaboration was an experiment to search for Weakly interacting massive particles . The consortium consisted of astrophysicists and particle physicists from the United Kingdom, who conducted experiments with the ultimate goal of detecting rare scattering events which would...
, and Sumner's interests cover a wide range of astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
-related fields, focusing particularly on particle physics
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
.
He received his degree in Physics from Sussex University in 1974, and his DPhil in Experimental Physics from Sussex University, for work carried out jointly with the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble. He joined the Cosmic-Ray and Space Physics group at Imperial College in 1979, and in 1984 became the project manager for flight hardware for the x-ray satellite ROSAT. He received a Group Achievement award from NASA for the project in 1990
He became involved in the search for the direct demonstration of the existence of galactic dark matter
Dark matter
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
, known as "Weakly Interacting Massive Particles". (WIMP). He is a member of the UK Dark Matter Collaboration (one of four groups around the world looking for WIMPs) and was its spokesperson in the UK for 2002-07. New Scientist
New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
described him as "leading the search for galactic dark matter, including axions, at Imperial College London in the UK" He is now Principal Investigator of the ZEPLIN III dark matter experiment. He also leads the ELIXIR proposal for next generation instruments. In addition to ROSAT, he has worked work on the space missions Gravity Probe B, which confirmed several prediction of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, LISA, a gravitational wave observatory in space, and STEP, a mission to test the equivalence principle in space. He is also associated with GAUGE, a new proposal to the European Space Agency.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and of the Royal Astronomical Society, and holds the position of V ice-Chair , COSPAR - Commission H
Publications
ScopusScopus
Scopus, officially named SciVerse Scopus, is a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles. It covers nearly 18,000 titles from over 5,000 international publishers, including coverage of 16,500 peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical,...
lists him as havinghad 132 peer-reviewed publications. The ones with the highest citation counts are:
- Rowan-Robinson, M., Mann, R.G., Oliver, S.J., Efstathiou, A., Eaton, N., Goldschmidt, P., Mobasher, B., Serjeant, S.B.G., Sumner, T.J., Danese, L., Elbaz, D., Franceschini, A., Egami, E., Kontizas, M., Lawrence, A., McMahon, R., Norgaard-Nielsen, H.U., Perez-Fournon, I., Gonzalez-Serrano, J.I. "Observations of the Hubble Deep Field with the Infrared Space Observatory - V. Spectral energy distributions, starburst models and star formation history" (1997) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society is one of the world's leading scientific journals in astronomy and astrophysics. It has been in continuous existence since 1827 and publishes peer-reviewed letters and papers reporting original research in relevant fields...
, 289 (2), pp. 490–496. Cited 155 times. - Smith, P.F., Arnison, G.T.J., Homer, G.J., Lewin, J.D., Alner, G.J., Spooner, N.J.C., Quenby, J.J., Sumner, T.J., Bewick, A., Li, J.P., Shaul, D., Ali, T., Jones, W.G., Smith, N.J.T., Davies, G.J., Lally, C.H., Van Den Putte, M.J., Barton, J.C., Blake, P.R. "Improved dark matter limits from pulse shape discrimination in a low background sodium iodide detector at the Boulby mine" (1996) Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics, 379 (1-4), pp. 299–308. Cited 103 times.
- Oliver, S., Rowan-Robinson, M., Alexander, D.M., Almaini, O., Balcells, M., Baker, A.C., Barcons, X., Barden, M., Bellas-Velidis, I., Cabrera-Guerra, F., Carballo, R., Cesarsky, C.J., Ciliegi, P., Clements, D.L., Crockett, H., Danese, L., Dapergolas, A., Drolias, B., Eaton, N., Efstathiou, A., Egami, E., Elbaz, D., Fadda, D., Fox, M., Franceschini, A., Genzel, R., Goldschmidt, P., Graham, M., Gonzalez-Serrano, J.I., Gonzalez-Solares, E.A., Granato, G.L., Gruppioni, C., Herbstmeier, U., Héraudeau, P., Joshi, M., Kontizas, E., Kontizas, M., Kotilainen, J.K., Kunze, D., La Franca, F., Lari, C., Lawrence, A., Lemke, D., Linden-Vørnle, M.J.D., Mann, R.G., Márquez, I., Masegosa, J., Mattila, K., McMahon, R.G., Miley, G., Missoulis, V., Mobasher, B., Morel, T., Nørgaard-Nielsen, H., Omont, A., Papadopoulos, P., Perez-Fournon, I., Puget, J.-L., Rigopoulou, D., Rocca-Volmerange, B., Serjeant, S., Silva, L., Sumner, T., Surace, C., Vaisanen, P., Van Der Werf, P.P., Verma, A., Vigroux, L., Villar-Martin, M., Willott, C.J. "The European Large Area ISO Survey - I. Goals, definition and observations" (2000) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 316 (4), pp. 749–767. Cited 95 times.
- Serjeant, S., Oliver, S., Rowan-Robinson, M., Crockett, H., Missoulis, V., Sumner, T., Gruppioni, C., Mann, R.G., Eaton, N., Elbaz, D., Clements, D.L., Baker, A., Efstathiou, A., Cesarsky, C., Danese, L., Franceschini, A., Genzel, R., Lawrence, A., Lemke, D., McMahon, R.G., Miley, G., Puget, J.-L., Rocca-Volmerange, B. "The European Large Area ISO Survey - II. Mid-infrared extragalactic source counts" (2000) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 316 (4), pp. 768–778. Cited 66 times.
- Rowan-Robinson, M., Lari, C., Perez-Fournon, I., Gonzalez-Solares, E.A., La Franca, F., Vaccari, M., Oliver, S., Gruppioni, C., Ciliegi, P., Héraudeau, P., Serjeant, S., Efstathiou, A., Babbedge, T., Matute, I., Pozzi, F., Franceschini, A., Vaisanen, P., Afonso-Luis, A., Alexander, D.M., Almaini, O., Baker, A.C., Basilakos, S., Barden, M., Del Burgo, C., Bellas-Velidis, I., Cabrera-Guerra, F., Carballo, R., Cesarsky, C.J., Clements, D.L., Crockett, H., Danese, L., Dapergolas, A., Drolias, B., Eaton, N., Egami, E., Elbaz, D., Fadda, D., Fox, M., Genzel, R., Goldschmidt, P., Gonzalez-Serrano, J.I., Graham, M., Granato, G.L., Hatziminaoglou, E., Herbstmeier, U., Joshi, M., Kontizas, E., Kontizas, M., Kotilainen, J.K., Kunze, D., Lawrence, A., Lemke, D., Linden-Vørnle, M.J.D., Mann, R.G., Márquez, I., Masegosa, J., McMahon, R.G., Miley, G., Missoulis, V., Mobasher, B., Morel, T., Nørgaard-Nielsen, H., Omont, A., Papadopoulos, P., Puget, J.-L., Rigopoulou, D., Rocca-Volmerange, B., Sedgwick, N., Silva, L., Sumner, T., Surace, C., Vila-Vilaro, B., Van Der Werf, P., Verma, A., Vigroux, L., Villar-Martin, M., Willott, C.J., Carramiñana, A., Mujica, R."The European Large-Area ISO Survey (ELAIS): The final band-merged catalogue" (2004) Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 351 (4), pp. 1290–1306. Cited 65 times.