Philip Best

Professor P N Best, FRSE

Position: Head of School
Category: Academic staff
Location: James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB)
Room 4323b

School research affiliations

Philip is a member of the following School research institute:

Institute for Astronomy

Research interests

Observational cosmology, studies of galaxy formation, and the high redshift Universe.
Active galactic nuclei (AGN), in particular their host galaxies, and their influence on galaxy evolution.
Radio astronomy, the cosmic evolution of radio sources, their growth, and radio source shocks
Star-forming galaxies at high redshift, and the star-formation history of the Universe
Clusters and groups of galaxies, and the effect of environment on the nature and properties of galaxies.

Administrative roles

I am currently Head of the Institute for Astronomy

I have designed, organised and lectured a number of different courses, from pre-honours to Masters level, as well as serving on the School's Teaching Committee for five years, and being Senior Director of Studies of four years. Currently, I organise and lecture the SH/IM level course "High Energy Astrophysics" as well as leading the "Telescope Group Project" and supervising Senior Honours and Integrated Masters projects.

Recent news

Philip has featured in the following recent School news stories:

Publications

Recent publications

Radio-AGN activity across the galaxy population: dependence on stellar mass, star-formation rate, and redshift DOI
Rohit Kondapally, Philip N. Best, Kenneth J. Duncan, Huub J. A. Röttgering, Daniel J. B. Smith, Isabella Prandoni, Martin J. Hardcastle, Tanja Holc, Abigail L. Patrick, Marina I. Arnaudova, Beatriz Mingo, Rachel K. Cochrane et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 536, 1, p. 554-571 (2025)
The LOFAR two metre sky survey data release 2: probabilistic spectral source classifications and faint radio source demographics DOI
A. B. Drake, D. J.B. Smith, M. J. Hardcastle, P. N. Best, R. Kondapally, M. I. Arnaudova, S. Das, S. Shenoy, K. J. Duncan, H. J.A. Röttgering and C. Tasse, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 534, 2, p. 1107-1126 (2024)
Widespread AGN feedback in a forming brightest cluster galaxy at z = 4.1, unveiled by JWST DOI
Aayush Saxena, Roderik A. Overzier, Montserrat Villar-Martín, Tim Heckman, Namrata Roy, Kenneth J. Duncan, Huub Röttgering, George Miley, Catarina Aydar, Philip Best, Sarah E.I. Bosman et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 531, 4, p. 4391-4407 (2024)
The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: The nature of the faint source population and SFR-radio luminosity relation using Prospector DOI
Soumyadeep Das, Daniel J. B. Smith, Paul Haskell, Martin J. Hardcastle, Philip N. Best, Kenneth J. Duncan, Marina I. Arnaudova, Shravya Shenoy, Rohit Kondapally, Rachel K. Cochrane, Alyssa B. Drake et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 531, 1, p. 977-996 (2024)
The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation DOI
WEAVE Collaboration, Shoko Jin, Scott C. Trager, Gavin B. Dalton, J. Alfonso L. Aguerri, J. E. Drew, Jesús Falcón-Barroso, Boris T. Gänsicke, Vanessa Hill, Kenneth J. Duncan, Sergey E. Koposov, Philip Best et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 530, 3, p. 2688-2730 (2024)

View all 326 publications by Philip Best

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