Programme Speakers
Mike Hobson
Michael Hobson received the B.A. (Hons) degree in Natural Sciences and the PhD degree in Astrophysics from the University of Cambridge, U.K., in 1989 and 1993, respectively. Since 1993, he has been a member of the Astrophysics Group of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where he has been a Reader in Astrophysics and Cosmology since 2003.
His research interests include theoretical and observational cosmology, particularly anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background, gravitation, Bayesian analysis techniques, and theoretical optics. He has held numerous grants from STFC, PPARC and EPSRC to pursue his work in these areas. He was awarded a Fellowship by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in 2000 to explore the transfer of his astronomical image analysis technology to commercial applications. This led in 2003 to his founding of Metropolis Data Consultants (MDC) Ltd, which applies novel astronomical signal processing methods in areas such as medical imaging and the security sector, providing bespoke analysis software to a range of customers including GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever and Illumina. MDC also holds a number of shared grants with researchers from the biological sciences in UK academic institutions and in large pharmaceutical companies.
Michael is also a director and co-founder of Geomerics, which was launched in 2006 and uses geometric algebra techniques developed in theoretical physics for the enhancement of computer graphics in games. Geomerics has also attracted grant funding from the Research Councils and the DTI.
