Jim Dunlop was born and raised on the Clyde coast. He studied Physics at Dundee, before moving to Edinburgh where he obtained a PhD in Astrophysics in 1988. After 7 years working in England (where he helped establish the Astrophysics group in Liverpool) he returned to Edinburgh and has worked at the Royal Observatory ever since, apart from two periods in Vancouver. From 2004 to 2008 he was Head of the University's Institute for Astronomy, and has recently taken this on for a second term.
Jim is an observational cosmologist who uses the world's largest telescopes (including telescopes in space such as the Hubble) to study cosmic history back to the formation and birth of the first galaxies. He has been awarded a Wolfson Research Merit Award by the Royal Society, and an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council.
Jim is an elected fellow of the Institute for Physics and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has recently received the George Darwin Lectureship (2014), and the Herschel Medal (2016) from the Royal Astronomical Society.
Professional position
- Professor of Extragalactic Astronomy, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
Subject groups
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Astronomy and Physics
Cosmology, Astronomy, Astrophysics
