Mark Wright

This is just a brief website - primarily for linking to my PhD thesis, and data related to it. For Lib Dem/Bristol South stuff go here.

Personal

Dr Mark Wright - That's me above in 1999... You can tell by the obscenely blue sky that I'm not in the UK! Actually I'm at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, having a nice break from my PhD. On the left is the Indian Ocean; on the right is the Atlantic Ocean. [Edit 2005/12: I now have slightly less hair. Doh.]

I completed a Ph.D. in the Astrophysics group at the University of Bristol. My degree was in Chemistry, also at the University of Bristol. If you're wondering how I managed to migrate from chemistry to astrophysics, the final year project of my degree was astrophysical chemistry.

I am currently working as a software engineer for a large company in the UK.

I'm not in the habit of divulging my life story in a forum as big and filled with crazies as the internet is, so if you want to know more about me you'll have to contact me and justify it ;-)

Ph.D. Work

My Ph.D. was based on hydroxyl (OH) masers. Maser is an acronym for: Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Many different varieties of masers arise naturally in space, in clouds of warm dust and gas. Hydroxyl molecules also arise naturally in space, typically by uv photodissociation of water molecules. Masers are great probes for several reasons:

1. At their wavelength, the atmosphere is transparent
2. At their wavelength, dense clouds of interstellar dust are also transparent
3. Physical conditions, magnetic conditions, and the motion of the gas they are in can often be calculated from observations
4. Masers occur in some of the most interesting places in the universe!

I was fortunate to get hold of a superb dataset, from my supervisor Dr Malcolm Gray, of the star-forming region W3(OH). The name means that this is the OH region in the third source in the W catalogue of star-forming regions. My work over several years is contained in my Ph.D. thesis, and in refined form in some published papers. My thesis is available to download right here; it is in Adobe pdf format and is 4.2 MB in size. The thesis is of course my original work and is covered by all the usual copyrights. There is a small errata list.

If you are a researcher and want to look at or use the data from my thesis, or are for some other reason interested in W3(OH) and the maser catalogue, then please click here.

I was very proud in 2002 when my thesis won the Royal Astronomical Society's Michael Penston Astronomy Prize. This prize is awarded annually by the RAS "For the best UK PhD thesis in astronomy and astrophysics". The prize came with enough cash for me to go on holiday to Australia and New Zealand for 2 weeks! :-)

Peer reviewed publications of mine in astronomy journals:

• Wright, M. M.; Gray, M. D.; Diamond, P. J.; (2004), `The OH ground-state masers in W3(OH) - I. Results for 1665 MHz', MNRAS 350 (4), 1253 [minor Errata]
• Wright, M. M.; Gray, M. D.; Diamond, P. J.; (2004), `The OH ground-state masers in W3(OH) - II. Polarization and multifrequency results', MNRAS 350 (4), 1272
• Yates, J. A.; Richards, A. M. S.; Wright, M. M.; Collett, J. L.; Gray, M. D.; Field, D.; Cohen, R. J.; (2000), `Resolved OH megamaser emission in the nuclear region of the ultraluminous infrared galaxy Markarian 273', MNRAS 317 (1), 28
• Richards, A. M. S.; Knapen, J. H.; Yates, J. A.; Cohen, R. J.; Collett, J. L.; Wright, M. M.; Gray, M. D.; Field, D.; (2005), `OH megamasers, starburst and AGN activity in Markarian 231', MNRAS 364 (2), 353

The links above take you to the Blackwell abstract page. You will need to log in to get the full article. You can also get my latest and full publication list at the wonderful ADS site.

After recovering from the shock of using AIPS, I wrote something funny based on the discoveries made in the Bristol Starlink Coffeeroom.You probably wont think it is funny, but then you probably havent used AIPS...

Favourite Links

Astrophysics stuff:

• The VLBA website.
• The VLA website.
• The EVN website.
• The MERLIN website.
• Did you know you can get your hands on every astrophysics/astronomy paper written in recent decades? Just search at the NASA Astrophysics Data System.
• Still using FORTRAN? Good on you! ;-) Numerical Recipes is now online.
• Latest astrophysical preprints at Astro-ph.

Political stuff:

• I support the Liberal Democrats. I am an elected Councillor for Cabot ward in Bristol, the chairman of Cabot Ward Liberal Democrats in Bristol West, and the Parliamentary Challenger for Bristol South at the next General Election.
• The Independent newspaper - Great minds don't click alike.
• Keep a watch for the erosion of your own freedom at Liberty.
• The UK is a democracy, but much less democratic that you probably think. Check out Charter88 to see efforts to bring the UK into the 21st century.
• Nearly every country in the world has signed the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Every country in the world totally ignores the treaty they signed. What's new?
• 'First Amendment Rights', 'Plead the fifth!' What does that all mean? Check out the United States Constitution.
• The US constitution was loosely based on the Magna Carta - the closest we get to a constitution in the UK. The text is available at the British Library site.
• Things are looking up for the future: Check out this site covering the European Convention on Human Rights. At long last every citizen in Europe has a last line of defence against abuse by their own government.
• Is the alternative to organised religion just a society where nobody cares about anyone else? Of course it isn't! People who don't believe in gods but still care about the weak and needy are sometimes called Humanists. You might be a Humanist without knowing it, so check out the British Humanist Association and see.

Computer stuff:

• Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Literally.
• Do you remember the Spectrum game Lord's of Midnight? Those of us stuck in the past can relive our childhood days with the new PC version by Chris Wild.
• Get the latest hardware reviews and testing at Tom's, Anand's, or (for the professional) Dean's.
• Thinking about upgrading your PC but got no clue what motherboard you've got? Wim's BIOS Page can help you identify your computer.

Web pages of a few of my friends.

• Pierre's astro-type page
• Tino's astro-type page
• Dor's DJ type page
• Computer Solutions UK
• Tim's photography page
• Jas' Workwear and embroidery page

How to Contact Me

• e-mail: mark at markwright dot info - Commercial e-mail (i.e. SPAM!) is not welcome. All unsolicited mail of this sort will be instantly binned, and the source IP address will be blacklisted. You're just wasting your own time...
• Postal Address: N/A

Created 30/04/01 - - Last update 25/03/06
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Mark Wright