Issue 12, June 2006

Graduate research at Balliol

by Mary Carr and Stephen Stromberg

Balliol’s graduate students are engaged in a fascinating and broad range of research topics, whether studying for Master’s degrees or DPhils. To provide a flavour of the intellectual energy found at Holywell Manor today we feature four postgraduates from around the world.

Marija Vlajic (2005)

Astronomers and astrophysicists have been able to piece together the history of the Universe, but only up to a point. Balliol’s Marija Vlajic, a graduate Fresher from Serbia and Montenegro and recent Jowett Scholarship recipient, is trying to piece together what happened when the Universe was young, a soup of basic particles combining and moving apart.

Because it can take billions of years for light to reach the Earth, looking at distant objects in space is like looking back in time to the way those objects existed billions of years ago. But at some point the matter that made up the Universe is not visible.

The Very Large Array of radio telescopes in New Mexico

“The Universe only became optically transparent when it was about five per cent its current age,” Marija says. “In order to study the first stars and galaxies we have to use telescopes which operate at longer wavelengths. In my research I am using the data from one of the world’s biggest arrays of radio telescopes, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, to study distant galaxies.”

She adds: “Since those are extremely faint objects, we are taking advantage of gigantic clusters of galaxies, which – as Einstein had predicted – act like giant lenses in space and magnify the faint distant objects we wouldn’t be able to observe otherwise.”

Marija is also on the Oxford team that is planning the next large radio telescope set to be built, the Square Kilometre Array. The Array is an international project due to be finished in the next decade. “This $1 billion project is an international collaboration and will make a revolutionary break with current radio facilities when it is built in 2015,” Marija remarks. “It will enable astronomers to see the formation of the early Universe, including the emergence of the first stars, galaxies and other structures.”

Thinethavone (Tim) Soutphommasane (2004)

Is multiculturalism antagonistic to patriotism? Tim Soutphommasane, a Balliol MPhil student in Political Theory, does not think so.

Tim is writing his MPhil thesis on multiculturalism and patriotism, particularly on the challenge of national identity in culturally diverse societies.

“What it means to belong to a national community is an important question facing many liberal democratic societies today,” comments Tim. He believes that contemporary political theory needs to articulate a sense of belonging that reconciles difference and solidarity. “There’s a sense among many theorists and commentators that multiculturalism and patriotism are conflicting values, but my research explores how a liberal theory of community and citizenship can accommodate both.”

The core of Tim’s treatment of national identity’s relationship with cultural identity is his view of what it means to be a member of a nation. He remarks: “I think it’s possible to have a robust sense of national identity even while it’s being negotiated through debates about difference. Within liberal societies, national identities and national cultures are always in flux and shaped by debates; the fact that we take part in the national conversation is what makes nationality relevant for us.”

Tim has found academic inspiration in his own personal history. He was born in France and grew up in Sydney, Australia. His parents are originally from Laos. “Much of my interest in ideas of multiculturalism and patriotism comes from my own experience negotiating identity, and also from my time working as a speech writer and political adviser to the Premier of New South Wales,” Tim says. “Working in politics gives you an interesting perspective on how ideas can shape public debate and public policy. I would hope that my research can, in its own small way, contribute to how liberal democratic societies understand cultural differences, integration, and patriotic identification.”

Stuart Munro (2004)

For all those who dread the tedium and exhaustion of long-haul air travel, there is hope for a happier future in the work of DPhil student and MCR President, Stuart Munro. His research in the field of hypersonics will, he hopes, lead to the development of passenger aircraft capable of travelling between any two places on Earth in under two hours!

Scramjet intake models made by stereo lithography are designed and tested at hypersonic speeds by Stuart in the University’s gun tunnel facility.

These planes will be powered by supersonic combustion ramjets, or ‘scramjets’, air-breathing engines capable of sustaining hypersonic flight at Mach 6-15 within the atmosphere. As Stuart explains, “The scramjet uses its forward momentum to compress the incoming air to pressures suitable for combustion – the ‘ram effect’. Fuel is then injected to the supersonic flow to generate thrust.” Engines capable of such speeds will also make possible much more efficient access to space.

Stuart’s work is focused on the design and performance evaluation of the scramjet intake, that part of the engine responsible for the collection, compression, and efficient delivery of the oxygen to the combustion chamber.

The extraordinary velocity generated by these engines complicates the design process enormously: “Even state-of-theart computer modelling packages are unable to simulate the details of the fluid and chemical dynamics of these conditions,” Stuart says. “I use a combination of pure theory, computational simulation and experiment in the design process.”

Stuart hopes to build and test a novel scramjet intake concept, which has shown considerable promise in preliminary studies, and which might soon enable him to fly to his native Australia in less time than it takes to watch a film.

Brian Flanagan (2004)

To what extent do senior judges look to foreign jurisdictions when interpreting domestic human rights law, and how helpful or legitimate are those influences? Brian Flanagan, an Irish MPhil student whose interests are focused on human rights legislation and comparative law is investigating this subject for his thesis.

Brian’s first step was to gather data from the judges themselves by means of a detailed questionnaire. He comments: “This gives a useful perspective on the criteria judges feel are appropriate in assessing the comparability of foreign jurisdictions – how judges incorporate foreign material into a theory of constitutional interpretation.”

The accuracy of the judges’ assessment of the importance of these factors in their judicial decisions will then be tested by cross-referencing the survey with qualitative research. The result of this work promises fascinating insights into the functioning of a transnational judicial community. Brian says: “I first became interested in this subject when, as an undergraduate, I spent a year studying in Paris. I think the transnational element in the judicial decision-making process has become increasingly, well, decisive, in recent years! I hope that my work will help to clarify this aspect of comparative law and make possible an objective assessment both of its scope and its validity.’

Brian, who was awarded a distinction in the BCL last year, hopes to continue his research at Balliol next year as a DPhil candidate.

Brian is the holder of a Foley-Béjar Scholarship at Balliol.

Floreat Domus 2006