Dr Alison Young
- Position: Stephen Hawking Fellow
- Areas of expertise: star and planet formation; protoplanetary discs; hydrodynamics; radiative transfer; astrochemistry
- Email: A.K.Young@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: 1.41 Sir William Henry Bragg Building
Profile
I joined the University of Leeds in 2025 as a Stephen Hawking Fellow. This fellowship combines theoretical astrophysics research with a programme of public engagement, which means I work with the widening participation and outreach teams as well as the Astrophysics Group. I have previously held the Warwick Prize Fellowship and postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Warwick, Edinburgh, and Leicester.
Research interests
I develop and run numerical simulations of protoplanetary/protostellar discs and of star formation to understand the origins of stars and planets, and to deepen our knowledge of how protoplanetary discs form and evolve. Theory must work hand-in-hand with observations to make progress, so I am also involved in observing proposals for facilities including ALMA and the VLT.
For my Hawking Fellowship, I am working to improve the treatment of radiative cooling in simulations of the youngest discs since we now suspect that dust, the major driver of cooling in these systems, evolves very quickly and this evolution needs to be considered.
Qualifications
- PhD Physics (Exeter)
- MPhys Physics with astrophysics (Exeter)