Dr Kevin Pimbblet

Professor Kevin Pimbblet

Director of DAIM

Faculty and Department

  • Faculty of Science and Engineering
  • Data Science AI and Modelling Centre (DAIM)

Qualifications

  • PhD / DPhil (Durham University)

Summary

Physics Research Excellence Framework Lead/ Athena Swan Departmental Champion

Kevin is an experienced British-Australian observational astronomer, having worked in multiple research intensive institutions across two continents.

He read his PhD at the University of Durham (Collingwood College) and, following more than a decade in Australia, returned to the UK in 2014.

His core research interests cover a number of modern astrophysical topics and issues in the umbrella areas of extra-galactic astronomy and astrophysics, large-scale structure of the Universe and cosmology.

Recent outputs

View more outputs

Journal Article

Predicting the ages of galaxies with an artificial neural network

Hunt, L. J., Pimbblet, K. A., & Benoit, D. M. (2024). Predicting the ages of galaxies with an artificial neural network. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 529(1), 479-498. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae479

The loneliest galaxies in the Universe: a GAMA and Galaxy Zoo study on void galaxy morphology

Porter, L. E., Holwerda, B. W., Kruk, S., Lara-López, M., Pimbblet, K. A., Henry, C. P., Casura, S., & Kelvin, L. S. (2023). The loneliest galaxies in the Universe: a GAMA and Galaxy Zoo study on void galaxy morphology. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 524(4), 5768-5780. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1125

Noise reduction in single-shot images using an auto-encoder

Bartlett, O. J., Benoit, D. M., Pimbblet, K. A., Simmons, B., & Hunt, L. (2023). Noise reduction in single-shot images using an auto-encoder. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 521(4), 6318-6329. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad665

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Extended intragroup light in a group at z = 0.2 from deep Hyper Suprime-Cam images

Pimbblet, K. A., Martínez-Lombilla, C., Brough, S., Montes, M., Baena-Gallé, R., Akhlaghi, M., Infante-Sainz, R., Driver, S. P., Holwerda, B. W., & Robotham, A. S. (2023). Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Extended intragroup light in a group at z = 0.2 from deep Hyper Suprime-Cam images. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 518(1), 1195-1213. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3119

Galaxy And Mass Assembly: galaxy morphology in the green valley, prominent rings, and looser spiral arms

Smith, D., Haberzettl, L., Porter, L. E., Porter-Temple, R., Henry, C. P., Holwerda, B., López-Sánchez, R., Phillipps, S., Graham, A. W., Brough, S., Pimbblet, K. A., Liske, J., Kelvin, L. S., Robertson, C. D., Roemer, W., Walmsley, M., O’Ryan, D., & Géron, T. (2022). Galaxy And Mass Assembly: galaxy morphology in the green valley, prominent rings, and looser spiral arms. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 517(3), 4575-4589. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2258

Research interests

Primary areas

- Galaxy evolution, formation, and environment over cosmologically significant timescales

- Stellar populations inside galaxies and their response to their physical environment

- Clusters and superclusters of galaxies, their kinematics, constituents, and growth

- Star formation in galaxies, and active galactic nuclei

- Brightest cluster galaxies (cD galaxies), and dwarf galaxies

- Filaments of galaxies that stretch between galaxy clusters, voids, large-scale structure, and topology

- Large, wide-field, and deep redshift surveys of the sky

Other areas

- Astronomical image processing, automated classification, machine learning

- Virtual observatory, and catalogue matching and handling

- Astrophysics and physics education

- Dark energy, and the standard model of cosmology

- Random number generation, statistics, statistical methods, game theory

Lead investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

Office for Students PG Conversion Course Funding

Funder

Office for Students

Grant

£500,000.00

Started

1 September 2023

Status

Ongoing

Project

EMO-GP: Emission Mechanisms of Giant Pulses

Funder

STFC Science & Technology Facilities Council

Grant

£446,691.00

Started

1 April 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Cosmic Chronometers in t he GAMA fields

Funder

The Royal Astronomical Society

Grant

£1,200.00

Started

23 June 2020

Status

Complete

Project

A ram pressure stripping toy model for jellyfish galaxies

Funder

The Royal Astronomical Society

Grant

£1,200.00

Started

1 July 2021

Status

Complete

Project

Additional scholarship funding for MSc in AI and Data Science

Funder

Office for Students

Grant

£60,000.00

Started

1 January 2023

Status

Complete

Project

Undergraduate Bursary: Star Formation Quenching Efficiency in Filaments of Galaxies

Funder

The Royal Astronomical Society

Grant

£1,200.00

Started

1 July 2018

Status

Complete

Co-investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

iCASE PhD studentship with QinetiQ (via Newcastle University)

Funder

EPSRC Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council

Grant

£98,000.00

Started

1 January 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

iCASE PhD Studentship with QinetiQ

Funder

EPSRC Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council

Grant

£42,000.00

Started

1 January 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Harnessing responsible use of technology for social and economic development in Burkina Faso: supporting community-led cultural heritage data governance through digital/AI literacy

Funder

British Academy

Grant

£124,722.00

Started

1 June 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Experiencing human-wildlife conflict management through playful learning

Funder

British Ecological Society

Grant

£3,460.00

Started

1 December 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Astrophysics at the University of Hull

Funder

STFC Science & Technology Facilities Council

Grant

£704,947.00

Started

1 April 2018

Status

Complete

Project

STFC Introductory Astronomy School - 2021

Funder

STFC Science & Technology Facilities Council

Grant

£49,315.00

Started

1 April 2021

Status

Complete

Project

National Data Strategy Pilot Funding

Funder

Office for Students

Grant

£32,692.00

Started

1 October 2021

Status

Complete

Project

Postgraduate conversion courses in AI and Data Science

Funder

Office for Students

Grant

£550,000.00

Started

1 April 2020

Status

Complete

Project

AKT: Predictive Manufacturing Optimization using Neural Networks (PROMINN)

Funder

Innovate UK

Grant

£29,358.00

Started

25 March 2024

Status

Complete

Project

Vital Knowledge Exchange Visits: Bolstering Ongoing Collaborative Responsible AI Projects at IIT-M and UoH

Funder

University of Hull

Grant

£7,500.00

Started

1 February 2024

Status

Complete

Postgraduate supervision

Observational astronomy and astrophysics, with a particular focus on galaxies, galaxy evolution, galaxy formation, stellar populations of galaxies, AGN, galaxy clusters, and large-scale structure of the Universe.

Completed PhDs

- Charlotte Wilkinson (2015-2019)

- Yjan Gordon (2015-2018)

- Amelia Fraser-McKelvie (2013-2017)

- Jacob Crossett (2012-2017)

- Dane Kleiner (2012-2017)

- Nic Bonne (2011-2015)

- David Palamara (2010-2015)

- Tim Dolley (2010-2015)

- Richard Beare (2010-2014)

- Brendan Griffen (2008-2009)

- Russell Jurek (2005-2009)

- Peter Firth (2005-2008)

- Isaac Roseboom (2004-2007)

Current PhD supervisions

- Mikkel Kristensen

- Mikkel Lindholmer

- Lawrence Bilton

- Oliver Bartlett

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