Thanks to Elaine for sharing details of this Islander who’ll be appearing on our TV screens on Wednesday evening. Ed
An Isle of Wight scientist will be appearing in a BBC2 Horizon programme this week.
Dr Tom Kitching went to Shanklin CE Primary, Lake Middle and Sandown High Schools. He was interested in Astronomy from a very early age – encouraged by his father Dave Kitching, and together they joined Vectis Astronomical Society, when Tom was just eight.
Tom had an aptitude for Maths, and his father, who taught maths at primary school could not keep up with him after the age of eight when he discovered calculus – after that he was on his own in the mathematical universe.
Outstanding student
Tom left Sandown High School in July 1999, where he was an A* pupil in Physics, Maths and Chemistry, and went on to Imperial College and got a MSc in Physics. Tom’s Ph.D came from his research in Cosmology at Edinburgh University – in just three years.
He was a research assistant in the Astro Physics department at Oxford University, and then went back to Edinburgh University as a researcher into Cosmology at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
Tom became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), and was a awarded a prodigious University Research Fellowship with the Royal Society.
Expert in Dark Energy
He is currently a University Lecturer and Researcher into Cosmology (in the field of Dark Energy) at UCL in London. He is based at the Mullard Space Science Centre in Surrey (part of UCL).
He is a lead scientist on the European Space Agency Project called EUCLID.
He has written numerous scientific papers, and is highly regarded in his field and travels the world for his research.
Where and when
Dr Tom’s Horizon programme will be on BBC2 tomorrow (Wednesday 30th March) at 8pm. Tune into Horizon to see ‘The Mystery of Dark Energy’.
