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John Ilee

@johnilee.bsky.social

STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow & Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Leeds. Assembled in Yorkshire. https://johnilee.github.io/

65 Posts50 Follower39 Folgt
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

Meet the team of interviewees, fighting to #SaveJodrellBank on BBC Breakfast this morning.💪 L:Dr David Williams-Baldwin @davidw-b.bsky.social top black hole expert, linking the smallest to the supermassive C:Simon Garrington - Prof Boss! R:Phoebe Ryder - amazing PhD student imaging space debris 🥳🔭

Four people standing in what looks like an empty swimming pool, but it's not. It's the disk of a massive radio telescope. Catherine (in sunspecs) is particularly excited to be there.
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

Did I travel all the way to #JodrellBank this morning for a 5min TV interview? Yes reader, I did. Did I then persuade the fab e-MERLIN Director Simon Garrington to let me climb inside the Lovell Telescope? Well, if you can't flex a Royal title occasionally, then what is the point of having it? 😇🔭🧪

John Ilee@johnilee.bsky.social · last wk.

What a complete waste of years of innovation and development. This is a genuinely unique instrument with no other counterpart anywhere else in the world…

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

John Ilee@johnilee.bsky.social · 4w ago

Very proud supervisor moment yesterday. Isaac Radley successfully defended his excellent PhD thesis - “A Multiwavelength Perspective of the ρ-Ophiuchus Star Forming Region” - with minor corrections and really nice compliments from both examiners. Well done Isaac! @physicsleedsuni.bsky.social

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John Ilee@johnilee.bsky.social · last mo.

I have many strong (probably unprintable) feelings about this whole debacle, but this absolute gem really needs to be highlighted: “A team at Glasgow developed a MEMS gravity sensor - the Wee-g…” Perfection 👌

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last mo.

At today's UKRI board meeting, the fate of UK particle physics and astronomy will likely be decided. Have we done enough to convince the powers-that-be to halt the proposed funding cuts? 🤞 Read Prof. Hiranya Peiris in Nature today eloquently explaining why these cuts are wrong.🧪🔭⚛️ 📖: rdcu.be/friwM

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last mo.

At today's UKRI board meeting, the fate of UK particle physics and astronomy will likely be decided. Have we done enough to convince the powers-that-be to halt the proposed funding cuts? 🤞 Read Prof. Hiranya Peiris in Nature today eloquently explaining why these cuts are wrong.🧪🔭⚛️ 📖: rdcu.be/friwM

Restructuring research funding as a choice between discovery and application gets the economics wrong, the evidence wrong and the people wrong. A premise is gaining traction in science policy on both sides of the Atlantic: that fundamental and applied research are competing claims on the same budget, and that the balance must shift towards application. In the USA, the current administration has proposed cuts of billions of dollars to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. In the UK, the national funding agency UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is restructuring its portfolio around government growth priorities, with curiosity-driven research nominally protected but the grant lines that actually fund investigators under severe pressure. The language varies — ‘doing fewer things better’, ‘aligning research with industrial strategy’ — but the underlying logic is the same. Fundamental science, the argument goes, is a luxury that becomes dispensable when budgets are tight. This premise is wrong, and the consequences of acting on it are already visible.
Royal Astronomical Society@royalastrosoc.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Stars of physics are in Westminster right now to call on the Government to halt funding cuts to astronomy and particle physics research. Professor Brian Cox called them "inexplicable", urging the Government to instead "trust, inspire and continue to invest in the next generation of scientists".

Stars of physics outside the Houses of Parliament.
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Finally some clarity on the #STFC budget: it's falling in real terms as UKRI spending rises. A conscious decision has been made to decrease UK funding for fundamental physics, despite all the evidence that our blue skies research is key for economic growth. Thank you @resprofnews.bsky.social!

A graph showing spending power for UKRI is increasing between 2022 and 2030Pressure drop. A graph showing the STFC budget in real terms decreasing from 2023 to 2030
Robin Bisson@robinbisson.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I think this says a lot about the pressure STFC is under: its budget will not have risen (in cash terms) between 2023 and 2030 Inflation is obviously going keep eroding that, and more so with the Iran war (Details of STFC budget figures over the spending review have not been published before now)

Inflation has piled pressure on STFC's budget, which has stayed relatively flat in cash terms
Ken Rice@kenrice.bsky.social · 4mo ago

If you really feel that "it is not right that other Councils (and disciplinary areas), EPSRC most notably, are called upon to make cuts towards the end of the financial year to meet overruns from STFC." then ponder the impact on EPSRC if STFC balanced its books by cutting funding to DIAMOND or ISIS.

Lucien Heurtier@lucienheurtier.bsky.social · 5mo ago

📢 @astroroyalscot.bsky.social, Prof. Jon Butterworth, & our rep for Early-Career Researchers, Simon Williams @si-wills.bsky.social will meet the SITC Committee next week to talk about the STFC funding! Let's all attend the hearing in person and online!🙎💻 committees.parliament.uk/event/26683/...

4 March 2026 - Science, Innovation and Technology Committee - Oral evidence session - Committees - UK Parliament

09:00 - The Wilson Room, Portcullis House

committees.parliament.uk