Employment

Scientific Manager, Software for Observations and Data Assimilation

Met Office, May 2022 – Present

  • Leading a team of scientific software engineers to build the organisation’s next generation data assimilation suite.
  • Promoting best software engineering practices, such as test-driven development, and pair-programming.
  • Hiring and training software engineers to work in the domain of numerical weather prediction and data assimilation.
  • Facilitating team cohesion and inspiring continuing personal development.

Senior Scientist, Data Assimilation Methods

Met Office, Dec 2019 – April 2022

  • Applying scientific and software engineering techniques to build the organisation’s next generation data assimilation suite.
  • Working on ways to model the covariance of a background model field.
  • Developing a cubed sphere mesh and interpolation infrastructure in ECMWF’s Atlas library.

Research Fellow

European Space Agency, ESTEC, Oct 2018 – Nov 2019

  • Investigating methods to perform accelerated multi-scale radiative transfer calculations.
  • Examining ways to incorporate astronomical observations directly into numerical simulations.
  • Submitting results for peer review and disseminating them at international conferences.
  • Working in an international organisation with colleagues from different technical backgrounds.

Research Associate

Cardiff University, School of Physics and Astronomy, Apr 2013 – Sep 2018

  • Investigated the origins of stellar masses and multiplicity statistics.
  • Performed hydrodynamical and radiative transfer calculations on the Cardiff HPC cluster.
  • Module organiser for foundation year lecture course.

Junior Developer

Sanderson IT Software & Services, Aug 2008 - Sep 2009

  • Part of a team which developed enterprise resource planning software.
  • Responsible for code development, testing and bug fixing.

Education

PhD Astrophysics

Cardiff University, 2009 – 2013

Dissertation title: Simulations of Star Formation in Ophiuchus

  • Used hydrodynamical simulations to model how clouds of interstellar gas collapse to form stars.
  • Initial conditions informed from observations of star forming regions in the Galaxy.
  • Simulation results compared to observations of existing stars; used to make inferences on hidden physical processes.
  • Additional responsibilities included demonstrating in first year practical labs.

MPhys Physics with Astronomy

University of Sheffield, 2:1, 2003 – 2008

Final year project: N-body simulations of low mass star formation

  • Awarded the Tessella Prize for Software in a Final Year Project.

Skills and Experience

Programming and Software

  • Multiple programming paradigms (e.g., OO, procedural, functional) in a variety of languages (e.g., C/C++, Fortran 90/2003 and Python).
  • Shared memory and distributed memory multiprocessing (OpenMP and MPI) on high performance computing clusters.
  • Experience in working with version control systems (git) and software configuration tools (CMake).

Numerical and Statistical Methods

  • Developing and Applying spectral methods to perform NWP parameter transforms.
  • Monte Carlo radiative transfer (developing new methods to model the transmission of radiation through media with various optical properties).
  • Bayesian inference and machine learning (e.g., Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, k-nearest neighbours, artificial neural nets).

Teamwork and Line Management

  • Line manager of a team of software engineers, delivering next generation data assimilation capability.
  • Spinning up new starters in the field of data assimilation and scientific software engineering.
  • Supporting the work and personal development of PhD students in the Cardiff star formation group.

Teaching and Training

  • Module organiser for undergraduate foundation year module: Foundations of Modern Physics. Involved teaching the concepts and history of modern physics to students with no A-levels (or equivalents) in physics or maths.
  • Computing laboratory supervisor for undergraduate second year module: Structured Programming. Module content included learning to program in Python and an introduction to numerical physics.

Talks

Conference Talks

  • The JEDI Application for Data Assimilation (JADA), 11th AMS Symposium on the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation (JCSDA), Denver CO, 10 January, 2023
  • Modelling the structure of star clusters with fractional Brownian motion, The Wonders of Star Formation, University of Edinburgh, 6 September 2018; also at Star Cluster Formation: Mapping the First Few Million Years, Université Grenoble Alpes, 30 August 2018
  • Synthetic observations of core fragmentation and young multiples, European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, Prague, 27 June 2017
  • Synthetic observations of star formation, Star and Planet Formation Workshop, University of Central Lancashire, 2 December 2016
  • Core fragmentation and protostellar multiplicity, Star Formation 2016, University of Exeter, 23 August 2016
  • Smoothed particle Monte Carlo radiative transfer, Computational Astrophysics with GANDALF, ISM-SPP School, 29 October 2015
  • A new method of Monte Carlo radiative transfer, RAS National Astronomy Meeting 2015, Llandudno, 7 July 2015
  • The role of discs in the collapse and fragmentation of prestellar cores, Disc Dynamics and Planet Formation, Larnaka, 29 June 2015
  • Star formation in Ophiuchus, The Labyrinth of Star Formation, Crete, 19 June 2013

Invited Seminars

  • Numerical Weather Prediction and Data Assimilation, ESTEC , 22 June 2021
  • Using fast Fourier transforms in radiative transfer calculations, Cardiff University, 21 February 2019
  • Star formation and radiative transfer methods, University of Central Lancashire, 13 January 2016
  • Star formation in molecular cloud cores, University of Exeter, 15 November 2015
  • Modelling star formation in Ophiuchus, University of Sheffield, 12 November 2014

Publications

  • Huybrighs, H. L. F.; Roussos, E.; Blöcker, A.; Krupp, N.; Futaana, Y.; Barabash, S.; Hadid, L. Z.; Holmberg, M. K. G.; Lomax, O.; Witasse, O., An Active Plume Eruption on Europa During Galileo Flyby E26 as Indicated by Energetic Proton Depletions, 2020, Geophysical Research Letters, 47, 10
  • Bates, M. L.; Whitworth, A. P.; Lomax, O. D., Characterizing lognormal fractional-Brownian-motion density fields with a convolutional neural network, 2019, MNRAS, 493, 161
  • Whitworth, A. P.; Marsh, K. A.; Cigan, P. J.; Dalcanton, J. J.; Smith, M. W. L.; Gomez, H. L.; Lomax, O.; Griffin, M. J.; Eales, S. A., The dust in M31, 2019, MNRAS, 429, 5436
  • Howard, A. D. P.; Whitworth, A. P.; Marsh, K. A.; Clarke, S. D.; Griffin, M. J.; Smith, M. W. L.; Lomax, O. D., L1495 revisited: a PPMAP view of a star-forming filament, 2019, MNRAS, 489, 962
  • Marsh, K. A.; Whitworth, A. P.; Smith, M. W. L.; Lomax, O.; Eales, S. A, Dust in the eye of Andromeda, 2018, MNRAS, 480, 3052
  • Lomax, O.; Bates, M. L.; Whitworth, A. P., Modelling the structure of star clusters with fractional Brownian motion, 2018, MNRAS, 480, 371
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P., Synthetic observations of protostellar multiple systems, 2018, MNRAS, 475, 1696
  • Marsh, K. A.; Whitworth, A. P.; Lomax, O.; et al., Multitemperature mapping of dust structures throughout the Galactic Plane…, 2017, MNRAS, 471, 2730
  • Jaffa, S. E.; Whitworth, A. P.; Lomax, O., Q+: characterizing the structure of young star clusters, 2017, MNRAS, 466, 1082
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P., SPAMCART: a code for smoothed particle Monte Carlo radiative transfer, 2016, MNRAS, 461, 3542
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P.; Hubber, D. A., Forming isolated brown dwarfs by turbulent fragmentation, 2016, MNRAS, 458, 1242
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P.; Hubber, D. A., The role of discs in the collapse and fragmentation of prestellar cores, 2016, PASA, 33, 4
  • Whitworth, A. P.; Lomax, O., A theoretical perspective on the formation and fragmentation of protostellar discs, 2016, PASA, 33, 3
  • Marsh, K. A.; Whitworth, A. P.; Lomax, O., Temperature as a third dimension in column-density mapping\ldots, 2015, MNRAS, 454, 4282
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P.; Hubber, D. A., On the effects of solenoidal and compressive turbulence in prestellar cores, 2015, MNRAS, 449, 662
  • Whitworth, A. P.; Lomax, O., Are the majority of Sun-like stars single?, 2015, MNRAS, 448, 1761
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P.; Hubber, D. A.; Stamatellos, D.; Walch, S., Simulations of star formation in Ophiuchus – II. Multiplicity, 2015, MNRAS, 447, 1550
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P.; Hubber, D. A.; Stamatellos, D.; Walch, S., Simulating star formation in Ophiuchus, 2014, MNRAS, 439, 3039
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P.; Cartwright, A., The intrinsic shapes of starless cores in Ophiuchus, 2013, MNRAS, 436, 2680
  • Lomax, Oliver David, Simulations of star formation in Ophiuchus, 2013, PhD Thesis
  • Rawiraswattana, K.; Lomax, O.; Goodwin, S. P, Collisions in young triple systems, 2012, MNRAS, 419, 2025
  • Lomax, O.; Whitworth, A. P.; Cartwright, A., Statistical comparison of clouds and star clusters, 2011, MNRAS, 412, 627