Wyn Evans' Homepage

I am Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University . The photograph shows me as I looked twenty years ago as a Research Fellow of King's College Cambridge. I was formerly Reader in Theoretical Physics at Oxford University and Lindemann Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I usually teach courses on Astrophysical Dynamics, Galaxy Formation and Galactic Dynamics in Part III of the Mathematical Tripos. However, during 2021-2022, I am on sabbatical. I campaign against bullying and harassment in academia. Bullies in academia are a feature, not a bug. The qualities associated with top academics are present in the kinds of people who bully others. Not all top academics are bullies, of course, but quite a few are. If you wish to contact me about a bullying issue in academia, please use this email. My manifesto for the Head of School of Physical Sciences at Cambridge University is here.

Research

I have worked on new stable belts of Near-Earth Objects, the first microlensing events towards M31, as well as discoveries of new ultra-faint dwarf galaxies and stellar streams, such as the Orphan Stream in the iconic Field of Streams.

I was co-discoverer of the four tails of the Sagittarius galaxy, the stream in Andomeda II and the Gaia Sausage. I have developed new mechanisms for hypervelocity stars. In theoretical physics, I pioneered the study of superinterability and have provided new exact solutions of the Boltzmann and Fokker-Planck equations.

My departmental home page is here, and includes my most recent preprints.

Selected Press Releases

Papers on the web

Students

Prospective graduate students are invited to email me to discuss possible Ph.D. projects. Recent students have worked on galactic structure and substructure, gravitational lensing and microlensing, the Gaia data releases, variable stars, theoretical galactic dynamics and machine learning.

I am currently supervising Sam Ryan, Elliot Davies and Adam Dillamore.