Dave has over 25 years of experience in the field of gas-phase molecular spectroscopy and dynamics, working extensively in the area of charged particle imaging and photofragment angular distributions using both time- and frequency-resolved methods. He obtained his undergraduate degree and PhD from the University of Nottingham and then spent time as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, in the USA (at SUNY Stony Brook), and in Canada (at the National Research Council). Dave arrived at Heriot-Watt in 2007 and is jointly affiliated to the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences and the Institute of Chemical Sciences.

Having obtained his MPhys in Chemical Physics from Heriot-Watt in 2022, Lewis is now undertaking his PhD within the Townsend group. He had worked previously with Dave as his supervisor for both his BSc and MPhys research projects, and also completed a summer project within the group in 2021. Lewis is investigating phototelectron circular dichroism phenomena in the multiphoton ionization of chiral molecules. He is also designing a new stage for the current experiment, where he will investigate the effects of performing laser induced, non-adiabatic molecular alignment prior to photoionization.

Ross obtained an MPhys in Physics from Heriot-Watt University in 2023. He previously worked with Dave as his supervisor for both his BSc and MPhys research projects and also completed a summer project within the group in 2022. Ross is now focussing on developing machine learning techniques to enhance photoelectron image processing. In parallel, he is gathering experimental velocity-map imaging data to aid in the validation of these approaches. His current projects include investigations into image up-sampling and the introduction of a segmentation process to refine the AIR neural network for applications involving more complex photofragment angular distributions.

David obtained an MSc in Planetary Sciences from Aberdeen University in 2024, working with Prof. Maria-Paz Zorzano on his dissertation studying solar, geomagnetic and Arctic climate variability. He also graduated from The University of Glasgow in 2022 with a BSc in Physics, working with Dr Phillip Litchfield on his final project studying the sensitivity of neutrino oscillation experiments. David is now undertaking his PhD within the Townsend group, with his work initially focussing on investigating ultrafast pump-probe transient absorption spectroscopy of aromatic molecules in the solution phase.

Chris obtained an MPhys in Chemical Physics from Heriot-Watt in 2019. He also previously worked in the Townsend group as both a summer student and a final year project student. During his PhD developing Novel Image Processing Strategies for Probing Photoelectron Dichroism Effects in Chiral Molecules, Chris built and commissioned new a velocity-map imaging spectrometer and also developed methods for processing photoelectron imaging data using novel tomographic and machine learning approaches. He defended his thesis in May 2023 and then spent two years as a postdoc. at Radboud University in The Netherlands working with Prof. Bas van de Meerackker. Chris returned to the UMD group at Heriot-Watt in June 2025 to take up an independent EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship.