Eamonn is an astrophysicist at The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. He leads a team at Manchester that is studying exoplanets – planets around other stars. He is a leading expert on the use of gravitational lensing to find exoplanets, a technique that uses Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Eamonn also co-leads an international survey, SPEARNET, that is detecting atmospheres around exoplanets using a global telescope network.
Eamonn is a frequent contributing expert to print and broadcast media on the topic of exoplanets and the hunt for alien life, including for outlets such as Newsweek, the BBC and HuffPost UK.

Talk: PLEXIT: what does it take to leave our planet, or to find others who leave theirs?

I will talk about some of the latest research that I and other colleagues around the World are undertaking into the study of exoplanets – planets around other stars. This research is informing us about the possibility of life on other planets. I’ll discuss how game theory might help to maximise the odds of discovering intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. Humankind is now itself not so far away from harnessing the technologies needed to make our own journey to other stars. I’ll talk about some of these technologies and some potentially unsettling conclusions that we might glean from our emergence as interstellar travellers.