School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE1 7RU
James.Nightingale”at”newcastle.ac.uk
https://jamesnightingale.net/
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Current Position
2024 – Now: Newcastle University – Ernest Rutherford Fellow
Previous Positions
2022 – 2024: Durham University – Post-Doctoral Research Assistant
2021 – 2022: Concr & Durham University – Royal Society Short Industry Fellow
2016 – 2021: Durham University – Post-Doctoral Research Assistant
Education
The University of Nottingham: PhD in Astronomy
September 2012 – July 2016
The University of Nottingham: Physics MSci (first class)
September 2008 – July 2012
Leadership & Roles
2025 – Present: Chair, Euclid:UK Coordination Group — facilitating UK researchers to maximise the scientific return from Euclid data
2023 – 2025: Computing Lead, Euclid:UK Coordination Group — coordinated the 2024 and 2025 resource calls, securing over 1500 CPU years for the UK science community
2025: Habitable Worlds Observatory — submitted a black hole science case to define NASA’s HWO science requirements, and ran an HWO session for NAM 2025
2022 – Present: COSMOS-Web Lensing Working Group Lead
Honours & awards
2023: Ernest Rutherford Fellowship
2022: Euclid Consortium Builder
2021: Royal Society Short Industry Fellowship
2021: Durham University Physics Department Award for Excellence
2020: N8 Postdoc Award
2019: Euclid Star Prize, Junior Scientist Award
Grants & Funding
2025: Euclid:UK Support for Space Mission Science Preparation (PI), £70,000
2024: AI-Vision, Innovate UK*, £600,000 total, £90,000 to Durham
2024: ARCHER GPU eCSE grant, £171,000
2024: DiRAC RAC 17 proposal: 0.5 FTE Software Engineer Support
2023: Ernest Rutherford Fellowship, ~£600,000
2021: Royal Society Short Industry Fellowship, £20,625
2021: DiRAC RAC 13 proposal: 7.5 M-core-h CPU + 3.6 kGPU-h
2021: DiRAC RAC 13 proposal: 0.5 FTE Software Engineer Support
2021: DiRAC DDT proposal: 0.25 FTE Software Engineer Support
2020: Innovate UK grant w/ Roche*, £1m total, £114,000 to Durham
2020: Ogden Centre Trust, Summer Student Funding, £1,800
2020: STFC Opportunities PPAN Grant*, £141,510
2019: STFC Impact Acceleration Grant*, £23,000 (featured in STFC handbook 2021)
2016: Royal Astronomical Society Travel Grant, £350
2016: University of Nottingham Graduate School Travel Prize, £350
2015: Dark Energy Survey Early Career Scientist Grant, £700
2013: University of Nottingham Teaching Scholarship, £3,500
2013: ARCHER Summer School Bursary, £400
*Due to STFC / Innovate eligibility criteria requiring an open-ended contract, my line manager acted as PI.
Press
2025: The Observer, “The science of serendipity”
2025: DiRAC Deep Dive on PyAutoLens GPU code conversion
2025: Euclid Q1 press feature
2024: AI-Vision biotech project
2023: Televised interview on BBC4 The Sky at Night
2023: LBC with Andrew Marr
2023: Many interviews for black hole discovery: Times Radio, GB News, ABC Australia Radio, BBC Radio Newcastle, Tynes Radio, TalkTV Radio, Durham University ad campaign to enhance global reputation, BBC The Naked Scientist
2021: GB News live interview, Cosmology & Cancer campaign
2021: The Sunday Times, Cosmology & Cancer campaign with Roche, Concr for Innovate UK grant
2016: Press release, “AutoLens Analysis Steps Up for Euclid’s 100,000 Strong Gravitational Lenses”, National Astronomy Meeting, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Service
2018 – Present: Journal reviewer for MNRAS, ApJ, A&A, AJ, Nature Astronomy and JOSS
2025: Grant reviewer, Poland’s National Science Centre
2025: SOC member, European Astronomical Society session
2024: PhD thesis examiner
2024: SOC member, “Dark Matter under the Gravitational Lens”, Hong Kong
2020 – 2022: Euclid STAR Prize Committee
Conferences & Workshops
Conference Organizer
2018-2021: Organiser, PyAutoLens user workshops: Cardiff, Nottingham, Durham, Beijing
2016: Co-Organiser, Extragalactic Strong Lensing: From Discovery to Exploitation, UK National Astronomy Meeting, June 30 – July 1
2015: Co-Organiser, Nottingham IMPACT Conference, October 26th 2015
Invited Seminars
2024: Bionow Oncology & Precision Medicine
2023: PRECISE Summer School, Poland
2023: International Astronomical Union Symposium 381, invited talk
2022: Royal Society Industry College Network Event
2021: STFC Summer School of Data Intensive Science
2021: STFC Cancer Diagnosis Network online event
2015-Present: 20+ invited seminars internationally, including Groningen, Brazil, Leiden & Bristol
Supervision & Teaching
PhD students: supervised two PhD students to thesis completion, guiding their research using PyAutoLens on automated lensing analysis and cosmological simulations. One went on to an Astronomy PDRA, the other joined the civil service.
Research software engineers: supervised seven RSEs — five with DiRAC (Jonathan Frawley, Jake Amey, Makis Kappas, Kolen Cheung, Gokmen Cilic), one with the ICG (Coleman Krawczyk), and a freelance engineer via industry grants (Richard Hayes, RGHSoftware).
2023 – Present: External supervisor, Brazilian PhD student
2019-2022: Supervision of 3 PhD students, Durham University
2020-2021: Miscada HPC computing course demonstrator, Durham University
2019-2020: First Year Tutorials Teacher, Durham University
2018-2019: Supervision of MRes student, Durham University
2017-2018: Second Year Scientific Computing Demonstrator, Durham University
2016-2017: First-year Tutorials Demonstrator, Durham University
2012-2015: Postgraduate Demonstrator, University of Nottingham
2013-2014: Postgraduate Teaching Leading, University of Nottingham
Outreach
2024 & 2025: Civil Service Well-Being talks
2013-2021: Talk on gravitational lensing, 10+ Astronomy Societies across the UK
2015: The Universe In Light of Gravitational Lensing, University of Nottingham Public Lecture series
2020: Durham Inspired: Live in Lockdown
2014: BBC Stargazing Live Event Coordinator, University of Leicester
2013-2015: Inflativerse General Manager, University of Nottingham
Telescope Observing
2013: 5 Day Observing Run on the Submillimeter Array, Mauna Kea, Hawaii
Observing Proposals
2016: HST proposal 14886, 3 Cycles, Co-I