'Remarkable' astrophysicist praised by top scientist

PhD student, Alexia Lopez, discovered the Giant Arc

A Nobel Prize winning scientist has praised the "remarkable" work of an astrophysicist at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).

PhD student Dr Alexia Lopez discovered the Giant Arc - a gigantic, ring-shaped structure in space, made up of galaxies and galaxy clusters that scientists say is so big it challenges our understanding of the universe.

Sir Roger Penrose, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on black holes, has invited her to meet in person at Oxford University, where he is an Emeritus Professor.

Ms Lopez, 28, said she "thought someone was playing a joke at first" when she heard he got in touch to say he was "fascinated by my findings".

Sir Roger Penrose won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on black holes

"I couldn't believe someone of such gravitas was interested in my work," she said, adding he is "so passionate about his research and it's infectious to see how excited he is about the possible links" between their findings.

Sir Roger, a world-renowned mathematician and physicist who mentored Professor Stephen Hawking, has a keen interest in the cosmological discoveries because they could show signs of his theory of the origin and development of the universe.

He has cited Ms Lopez in his latest research publication, The Physics of Conformal Cyclic Cosmology.

He said: "Alexia Lopez has discovered a remarkable effect which appears to substantiate the conformal cyclic cosmological model that I originally suggested in the early years of the 21st Century.

"Her observations provide what appears to be a very strong challenge to conventional cosmology which had not been previously anticipated."

Ms Lopez, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at UCLan in Preston, has been with the university since 2015 when she began an undergraduate degree in physics with astrophysics.

She then went on to complete a Masters and PhD with the University's Jeremiah Horrocks Institute for Maths and Physics (JHI).

Professor Derek Ward Thompson, director of the JHI, said: "We're very proud of what Alexia has achieved so far and she's still only at the beginning of her scientific career.

"To have the backing of Sir Roger Penrose is amazing and really highlights the significance of her research."