Marek Kukula

Marek Janusz Kukula is a British astronomer born in 1969 and is the oldest of 5 siblings. Since August 2008 he has held the post of Public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich where his role is to engage the UK public and media with all aspects of astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology and planetary science. He graduated in Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Manchester in 1990 and in 1994 was awarded a PhD in Radio Astronomy from the same university with a thesis on The Radio Properties of Seyfert Nuclei, based on research carried out at Jodrell Bank Observatory. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Astronomy (based at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh) and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. This was followed by a PPARC Advanced Fellowship held at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include active galactic nuclei (particularly Seyfert galaxy, Radio galaxy and quasars) and the ways in which large galaxies and their central supermassive black holes have changed and evolved throughout cosmological time. This research has involved the use of a variety of telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Array, MERLIN, the William Herschel Telescope, and the Very Large Telescope. In November 2012 he had stated on Twitter that he is of Polish descent through his father.