Duncan Lorimer

West Virginia University
Department of Physics
210E Hodges Hall
PO Box 6315
Morgantown, WV 26506
USA

I’m an astronomer interested in compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs) which I study using radio pulsars: rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron stars. Pulsars are great fun to study and have lead to a lot of exciting adventures over the years. A nice behind-the-scenes article describing how this work is carried out can be found here .

I arrived at WVU in May 2006 from the Jodrell Bank Pulsar Group where I worked as a Royal Society Research Fellow. Before that I was at Arecibo Observatory (1998-2001) and at the MPIfR in Bonn (1995-1998). My research revolves around surveys for radio pulsars and what they tell us about the population of neutron stars. This work is carried out with many collaborators and uses some of the classic radio telescopes around the world. Of particular interest are young, energetic pulsars and binary systems where the orbiting companion is a white dwarf, a main sequence star, another neutron star, and (perhaps soon!) a stellar-mass black hole.

To find out more, see this review article, our Handbook of Pulsar Astronomy or my CV

I’m fortunate to get the chance to teach Astronomy here at WVU…

Spring 2010 – Descriptive Astronomy (ASTR 106)
Fall 2009 – Radio Astronomy (ASTR 700)
Fall 2009 – Honors Relativity (ASTR 499)
Spring 2009 – Galactic Astronomy (ASTR 703)
Fall 2008 – Honors Astronomy (ASTR 498)
Fall 2008 – General Relativity (ASTR 470)
Spring 2008 – Descriptive Astronomy (ASTR 106)
Fall 2007 – Honors Astronomy (ASTR 498)
Fall 2007 – Radio Astronomy (ASTR 700)
Fall 2006 – Honors Astronomy (ASTR 498)
Fall 2006 – Descriptive Astronomy (ASTR 106)

There’s a lot more to life than pulsars and students. Family and friends might like to see the latest goings on down at the McLorimer Family Webpage.