Profile

Photo:

Kyle Oman

    • About Me:

      I live with my partner and 3 children in a small village near Durham. I work as a computational astrophysicist. Outdoors, I like to travel and explore the countryside with my family, and cycle to work and for fun. Indoors, I like painting, board games and video games.

    • My pronouns are:

      he/him/his

    • My Work:

      I use supercomputers to simulate how galaxies form and compare the results to what we see with telescopes to test scientific theories. Most of the time I’m trying to answer questions about dark matter.

    • My Typical Day:

      I have breakfast with my family then cycle to the office. I like that every day is a bit different, but usually it involves reading scientific articles, meeting with colleagues to discuss ideas and results, and programming computers to do calculations or make graphs showing results.

    CV

    • Education:

      I went to secondary school at Franco-Ouest in Ottawa, Canada. Then I studied physics and graduated with honours at the University of Waterloo, also in Canada. I stayed on there for a Master’s degree in physics, then moved to Victoria on an island off the West coast of Canada to do my PhD.

    • Qualifications:

      I did the International Baccalaureat (IB) programme in middle and secondary school. I have a Honours BSc in Physics (Astrophysics specialisation), an MSc in Physics and a PhD in Physics & Astronomy. I’m now a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow and a member of the European Astronomical Union and the International Astronomical Union.

    • Work History:

      I worked as a baker and pastry chef in secondary school at evenings and weekends. When I was studying at university I did a little bit of tutoring and worked as a teaching assistant grading assignments. Later as a graduate student I also worked as a demonstrator for laboratory courses and taught group tutorial sessions. Once I finished my PhD I worked as a full-time researcher at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands for two years before coming to Durham, where I started as a researcher before getting my current position as a research fellow and associate professor.

    • My Interview

      • What did you want to be after you left school?

        An astroparticle physicists (I ended up dropping the "particle" part!)

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Not really, I was pretty quiet and tried to stay on my teacher's good side.

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        I was a baker when I was in secondary school. I liked it a lot, maybe I'd try it again!

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker), a Canadian alt-rock duo that kind of combines drum & bass and grunge.