People

Shine is run by an enthusiastic team consisting of a scientist, a musician and an artist, with help from a large number of great volunteers from the Astronomy Group at the University of St Andrews. You can read more about us below!

Project Manager: Dr. Anne-Marie Weijmans

Anne-Marie Weijmans is a lecturer and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews. She obtained her PhD in astronomy from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and spent 4 years at the University of Toronto, Canada, as a Dunlap Fellow before moving to Scotland. She studies the internal structure of nearby galaxies, to learn more about the ways that they form and evolve. She is the lead observer of the MaNGA Survey, which is mapping 10,000 nearby galaxies with the Sloan Telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, USA. In her spare time, she plays the oboe and the cor anglais, and she is a member of the University Chamber Orchestra.

Musical Director: Bede Williams

New Zealand-born Bede Williams trained as an ABRSM International Scholar at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he graduated with the highest honours and all the major prizes. Making his concerto debut at the age of 17 with the Auckland Philharmonia, Bede has appeared as trumpet soloist throughout New Zealand and the United Kingdom. As principal trumpet of Alba Brass, Bede has toured the United Kingdom, North America, Europe, and the Middle East. As New Music Coordinator, Research Coordinator and Teaching Fellow at the Music Centre of the University of St Andrews he conducts the University Chamber Orchestra, Renaissance Singers and New Music Ensemble, and teaches performance, chamber music and conducting. He is Artistic Director of the St Andrews Brass Festival, Scotland’s only brass festival, which includes chamber music, large ensembles, masterclasses and community events.

Artistic Advisor: Tim Fitzpatrick

Tim Fitzpatrick is an installation artist based in North East Fife and a founder member of the Fife based community arts project The Red Field. Since the formation of The Red Field in 2010, Tim has designed and produced a wide range of installation and community arts projects throughout Scotland. Working in partnership with organisations including Historic Scotland, Unesco and NHS Scotland, Tim has created and sited new work in a wide diversity of public spaces and buildings. These have ranged from the medieval closes of Edinburgh Old Town to the new and very contemporary public atrium of the Forth Valley Royal Hospital in central Scotland. Collaboration with fellow artists and community groups has been key to the success of all of Red Field’s projects and with Tim’s background in light, sound and film, the opportunity to work with performace artists such as Alex Rigg and Florencia Garcia Chafuen, poet Ken Cockburn and, most recently, composers Michael Nyman and Goldie for the Fragments project, has been a source of much inspiration and often a catalyst to new ideas.

Astronomer: Dr. Rita Tojeiro

Rita Tojeiro is an STFC Ernest Rutherford Research Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St Andrews. She obtained her PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh and then moved to Portsmouth for 5 years of postdoctoral work at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, before returning to Scotland to take her current position in St Andrews. Rita researches the past lives of galaxies and the evolution of the Universe using vast three-dimensional maps made from the accurate positions of millions of galaxies. Rita has more than 12 years of experience in science communication in astronomy and is interested in all aspects of public engagement with science.