Dr Duncan MacKay

Education: 2018: PhD, Practice as Research (School of English), University of Kent / Thesis title: George Oppen’s Late Poetry as an Exploration of Cognition / 1991-1996: PhD, Computational Molecular Astrophysics (Electronic Engineering), University of Kent / Thesis title: Aspects of Interstellar and Circumstellar Silicon Chemistry / 2003: NPQH / 1985: PGCE / 1984: BSc, University of Kent

My current focus is on cross-disciplinary work with Arts and Humanities faculties at UKC, following on from the interdepartmental links nurtured during 2011 when I held a Leverhulme award as Writer & Artist in Residence at CAPS. Work with the Centre for Modern Poetry research group in the School of English explores the links between contemporary poetics and linguistics. Innovative poetics assume the right of experiment and inquiry familiar to science, pushing at the boundaries of conceptual and aesthetic possibility. My recent research explores the late work of American poet George Oppen as a direct precursor to issues of contemporary cognition as they relate to those possibilities.

The influence of the cognitive sciences (particularly linguistics, psychology, and the neurosciences) on creative practice is shared in the work both of CAPS and the School of English. Regular seminar contributions have introduced CAPS members to questions of epistemology and ontology, and most recently the notion of ‘image schemas’ as they impact scientific understanding and communication.

Past Research Experience/Projects
1996-2001: Research Fellow, Unit for Space Sciences & Astrophysics, Electronic Engineering Laboratories, UKC.

1) Joint research project with Steve Charnley at NASA (Ames/Goddard) on computational modelling of phosphorus and sulphur chemistries associated with the circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of carbon-rich stars.

2) Computational modelling of marker molecular species in the ultra-compact hot cores associated with high-mass star formation.