Metal-poor molecular gas beyond the optical disk of the Galaxy
P. M. E. Ruffle, T. J. Millar, H. Roberts, C. Henkel and D. A. Lubowich. In "Astrochemistry Throughout the Universe: Recent Successes and Current Challenges, IAU Symposium 231, 29 August - 2 September, 2005 in Asilomar, California, USA. Cambridge University Press", 2005.

Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Edge Cloud 2 (EC2)
P. M. E. Ruffle, T. J. Millar, H. Roberts, D. A. Lubowich, C. Henkel and G. Brammer. In "The dense interstellar medium in galaxies, Proceedings of the 4th Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt Symposium, Zermatt, Switzerland, CD-ROM edition, 22-26 September 2003. Springer proceedings in physics, Vol. 91. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer", 2004.

Angular diameters, fluxes and extinction of compact planetary nebulae: further evidence for steeper extinction towards the bulge
P. M. E. Ruffle, A. A. Zijlstra, J. R. Walsh, M. D. Gray, K. Gesicki, D. Minniti and F. Comeron. MNRAS, 353, 796, September 2004. ADS | Astro-ph

Angular diameters, fluxes and extinction of compact planetary nebulae: further evidence for steeper extinction towards the bulge
A. A. Zijlstra, P. M. E. Ruffle and K. Gesicki, in "Asymmetric Planetary Nebulae III, eds. M Meixner, J Kastner and N Soker, ASP Conference Series", 313, 40-41, 2004.

The Composition at the Outer Edge of the Galaxy
D. A. Lubowich, G. Brammer, H. Roberts, T. J. Millar, C. Henkel, J. Pasachoff and P. M. E. Ruffle. In "Elemental Abundances in Old Stars and Damped Lyman-Systems, 25th meeting of the IAU, Joint Discussion 15, 22 July 2003, Sydney, Australia", 15, 2003.

In the first year of my PhD I worked with Albert Zijlstra and subsequently we published the paper "Angular diameters, fluxes and extinction of compact planetary nebulae: further evidence for steeper extinction towards the Bulge" (Ruffle et al. 2004). We suggested that for the inner Galaxy the low-density warm ionized medium is the site of the anomalous extinction, and that low values of extinction can also be derived using dust models with a turnover radius of 0.08 microns.

After that I worked with Tom Millar on the chemistry of Edge Cloud 2 (EC2), which lies at the largest Galactocentric distance known to exist (~28 kpc). Our detections in this source indicated that heavy elements are depleted by about a factor of five relative to local molecular clouds and similar to those in dwarf irregular galaxies and damped Lyman alpha systems. These reduced abundances may be related to the low level of star formation in this region and are probably the result of infall of halo gas enriched in O, C and S from a burst of massive star formation in the Galactic halo shortly after the Milky Way was formed. Observed high abundances of the radicals C2H and CN are typical of PDRs, but at large Galactocentric radii, metal abundances relative to hydrogen are expected to be much reduced. In addition, although EC2 does contain young stars, there is no evidence of the late-type stars which produce dust grains, thereby justifying the assumption of a high ratio of UV flux to grain surface area (see Ruffle et al. 2007).

... but it's fun ... Radio astronomy at Green Bank, the Green Bank Telescope, and other cool stuff
The University of Manchester Astrophysics Group Seminar, 10 May 2007.

Out at the Edge - Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Galactic Edge Clouds
Dust, Gas and Chemistry in Space, Astrophysical Chemistry Group Meeting, Queen's University Belfast, 5 January 2007.
Jodrell Bank Observatory Seminar, Macclesfield, 15 November 2006.
The University of Manchester Astrophysics Group Seminar, 2 Nov 2006.

Out at the Edge - Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Galactic Edge Clouds
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Green Bank, West Virginia, 21 September 2006.
36th Young European Radio Astronomer's Conference (YERAC), Dalfsen, the Netherlands, 13 September 2006.

Out at the Edge - Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Galactic Edge Clouds
The University of Manchester Astrophysics Group Seminar, 9 March 2006.

Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Edge Cloud 2
Jodrell Bank Observatory Seminar, Macclesfield, 12 October 2005.
Young Researchers Astrochemistry Meeting, UCL, London, 19 Sept 2005.

Angular diameters, fluxes and extinction of compact planetary nebulae: further evidence for steeper extinction towards the Bulge.
The University of Manchester Astrophysics Group Seminar, 19 Nov 2004.

Angular diameters, fluxes and extinction of compact planetary nebulae: further evidence for steeper extinction towards the Bulge.
Evolved Stars Workshop, Queen's University Belfast, 7 September 2004.

Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Edge Cloud 2
Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC), Hawaii, 8 June 2004.
UMIST Astrophysics Group Seminar, Manchester, 10 February 2004.
Astrophysical Chemistry Group Meeting, Nottingham, 17 December 2003.
Young Physicists' Conference (YPC), Bristol, 23 November 2003.

Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Edge Cloud 2
IAU Symposia "Astrochemistry Throughout the Universe: Recent Successes and Current Challenges", Asilomar, Monterey, California, August 2005.

Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Edge Cloud 2
RAS National Astronomy Meeting, Open University, Milton Keynes, March 2004.

Metal-poor Molecular Gas in Edge Cloud 2
4th Cologne Bonn Zermatt Symposium "The Dense Interstellar Medium in Galaxies", Zermatt, Switzerland, September 2003.

Radio mm line and continuum observations (including bolometer mapping) at the Haystack 37m (Massachusetts), ARO 12m (Arizona), JCMT 15m (Hawaii), Onsala 20m (Sweden) and IRAM 30m (Spain) telescopes.

During 2005 I made successful applications for telescope time at the JCMT 15m, Effelsberg 100m, Onsala 20m and IRAM 30m telescopes.

As a result of attending the Single Dish IRAM Summer School (see below) I was invited to undertake pool observations at the IRAM 30m telescope in December 2003 and October 2005.

Data reduction with MIDAS, CLASS, GREG, SPECX and MOPSIC. I have written a comprehensive CLASS pipeline script for automating the reduction of mm spectral line data (including maps) and the generation of tables and figures in LaTeX format.

UK Grad School
Otterburn Hall, Northumberland, 22-26 July 2004.

Single Dish Millimetre Observing Techniques and Applications
IRAM Summer School, Pradollano, Sierra Nevada, Spain, 4-9 October 2003.

PPARC Astrophysics Summer School
Leeds University, 2-6 September 2002.