Career
He is the Philip Wetton Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford University. His research interests centre on cosmology and how galaxies form and evolve. He has a longstanding interest in astronomical instruments & telescopes and developed the scientific case for the United Kingdom"s involvement in the 8m Gemini telescopes project
He has pioneered the use of a new class of astronomical spectrograph to measure the masses and ages of galaxies, as well as search for black holes in their nuclei.
He is the founding Director of the Oxford Centre for Astrophysical Surveys which is funded by the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation. Davies was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, and grew up there, attending John Leggott Grammar School.
As a teenager Davies also attended evening classes run by the Workers" Educational Association, becoming a lifelong supporter of astronomy outreach work. Davies took his first degree in Physics at University College London and his Doctor of Philosophy at the Institute of Astronomy and Churchill College, Cambridge.
Posts at Lick Observatory, California, then Cambridge and Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, followed.
While at Kitt Peak he became part of the Seven Samurai collaboration which surveyed the distances and velocities of 400 nearby elliptical galaxies, discovering the Great Attractor, at that time thought to be pulling the Milky Way and other galaxies in the direction of the constellations of Hydra and Centaurus. Returning to the United Kingdom, Davies was based in Oxford leading the team that developed a proposal for United Kingdom participation in an 8-m telescope project which ultimately led to the establishment of the Gemini Observatory, twin 8m telescopes in Hawaii & Chile. He became Head of Astronomy at Durham University in 1994 where he developed his interest in integral field spectroscopy and played a leading role in building instruments for Gemini (GMOS) and the William Herschel Telescope (SAURON).
He used these to map the motions and composition of the gas and stars in galaxies leading to new insights into galaxy evolution.
Davies returned to Oxford in 2002 as Philip Wetton Professor of Astrophysics (a post he holds in conjunction with a fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford) where he pursues research in cosmology and the evolution of galaxies. He was Head of the Physics Department from 2005-2010 & Head of Astrophysics from 2011-2014.
From 2014 he has been Director of the Oxford Centre for Astrophysical Surveys. As President of the Royal Astronomical Society between 2010 and 2012, Davies worked with the RAS community to make the continued case for astronomy and geophysics, an area in which the United Kingdom excels.