Professor Smartt, Director of the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen’s, is leading a team of 12 international scientists who are engaged in a five-year project made possible by funding of 2.3m euro awarded by the European Research Council (ERC).

He says, ‘This is evidence of the global reputation which Queen’s has in this field. There was very high competition for this grant. Typically the success rate for funding of this kind is less than one in ten so this was quite an achievement. The ERC want to fund a project that might be risky – there are no guarantees - but there is the prospect of a very exciting scientific pay-off.

‘We’re hoping to gain a new understanding of the origin of chemical elements. We have found explosions in the last few years that are much brighter than anything we expected to see. The brighter something is, the further away it is. We’re able to look back and see the universe when it was younger than it is today. In effect, we’re looking back in time.’

Stephen Smartt studied at Queen’s where he did his PhD in astrophysics. He then spent three years as an astronomer at the UK-run observatory in the Canaries before becoming a research fellow at Cambridge. He is also a former holder of a European Young Investigator award and returned to Queen’s as a lecturer in 2004, rapidly building up a team to study supernova explosions.

He says, ‘What helped our bid was the track record which our group at Queen’s has developed. We’ve been very successful and we’ve started to compete with some of the best groups in the world in this field. We’ve joined a telescope project"We’re able to look back and see the universe when it was younger than it is today. In effect, we’re looking back in time." in Hawaii called Pan-STARRS – it’s the world’s biggest camera, sweeping and surveying the sky – and we’ve started to find very interesting things. We’ve now got a leadership role within that project. We get the data in Hawaii and then analyse it on our computers here in Belfast.’

The team has a truly international basis. ‘We have people from Italy, a lecturer here who’s originally from Kenya, a postdoctoral researcher from Sweden, people from right across the UK. In the Astrophysics Research Centre we have Americans, Portuguese, Germans. Most nationalities in Europe have been through here at some stage.

‘In the Pan-STARRS project, we’re involved with the University of Hawaii, Harvard, John Hopkins University and the Max Planck Society in Germany. Then we have a more European-focused collaboration with most of the universities in Europe who are involved in supernova research.’

Professor Smartt sees the project making an impact in several ways. ‘There are benefits for the economy here. It will involve around £2m in salaries – people living and working here in Belfast. Then there’s the educational impact – the outreach to schools. And on top of that there’s the enormous scientific impact.’

He acknowledges that the focus of research can change. ‘That can happen over time. You tend to make discoveries along the way which can change your views and that’s very exciting. What we do over the next five years will probably be slightly different from what we’re planning at the start. Something always surprises you in the universe. What I’m certain about is – we’ll find something new but I don’t know what it is yet.’

Astrophysics is renowned as one of the most competitive areas of scientific study. ‘Is there an urge to get there first? There absolutely is. This type of science is about discovery. That’s one of the things I’ve instilled into the group. If you’re second, nobody cares. You don’t get the money, you don’t get the papers, you don’t get the recognition. And in science that’s really what it’s about. No-one remembers the second person who split the atom.’

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