HALEY’S COMET Professor Haley Gomez is a Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics at Cardiff University. We spoke to her about falling in love with the night sky
A
t school Haley loved English and drama but it was in science that she really shone. Now she’s a senior lecturer in the School of Physics and Astronomy and a star of astrophysics in the UK.
What made you curious?
My ‘big bang’ was when a maths teacher suggested the book Masters of Time. It has a section on Vera Rubin, who discovered dark matter when she realised that stars rotating around the centre of the galaxy did so too quickly for the gravitational pull of visible matter. She proposed that a ‘dark’ matter would explain this phenomenon.
Did she inspire you?
I felt an affinity with her because she had to surmount so many obstacles as a
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woman in a male-dominated environment. She was open about how hard she’d had to work and that resolve has stayed with me. So, while I preferred English and drama, I found science more challenging and I really worked at it.
Why pick Cardi ?
Well, I am the first in my family to go to university, and initially I wasn’t sure it would be the right thing. However, my teachers were very supportive and after I finished A-Levels I got a work placement at Cardiff with Professor Sathyaprakash in physics and astronomy. I loved it and my future was sealed.
Describe your life
Interesting, fun and busy. I gained first-class honours from my four-year MPhys, then I took a PhD in astrophysics, which was judged best UK doctoral thesis by the Royal Astronomical Society, and
Students sit on lawns outside Cardiff University, which is part of the influential Russell Group
they also awarded me their Fowler prize. I’ve even hobnobbed with royalty. For my Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 research fellowship, I had to present my research to Prince Philip and various politicians at Buckingham Palace. My husband was with me so, of course, Prince Philip assumed he was there to talk about his work. But at least we had wine afterwards. All in all, I can’t complain.
Are you a mentor?
It is important to let young people know there are more possibilities for them than they think, as well as to show the wonder and importance of science. So, I work with a team of outreach staff to improve physics in schools, particularly for girls who don’t see university as being for them.
Any advice to o er?
Don’t take it too personally when things don’t work out.
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