Raymond Protheroe obtained his PhD in 1978 from Durham University, U.K., for a thesis on simulation of showers of energetic sub-atomic particles in the atmosphere produced by high energy cosmic rays (the highest energy particles in nature). He then spent the next three years in the U.S. as a NAS/NRC Fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center where he worked on the propagation and origin of cosmic rays. In 1983 Protheroe moved to the University of Adelaide in Australia on a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship to work on cosmic rays and ground-based gamma-ray astronomy, and was appointed Associate Professor/Reader in 1998. He was elected Fellow of the RAS (1979), IoP (1984), AIP (1990), ASA (1996), and has been Vice-Chair of Commission C4 (Cosmic Rays) of the IUPAP (2002-2005) and a member of the IAU since 1986.
As an educator, Professor Protheroe has taught introductory physics, undergraduate courses in optics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, astrophysics and relativity and cosmology, and at honours (graduate level) classical electrodynamics and high energy astrophysics. An example of his commitment to fully understanding and explaining the physics being taught led to his writing a paper on a fundamental aspect of electromagnetism which was inconsistent between textbooks at the time (“The Transient Magnetic Field Outside an Infinite Solenoid” by R. J. Protheroe and D. Koks, 1996, American J. Physics, 64, 1389).
Dr Protheroe's research has ranged widely from topics such as cosmic ray acceleration, energetic particle interactions in terrestrial, astrophysical and cosmological environments to predicting fluxes of cosmic rays, radio to gamma-ray emission and/or neutrinos from pulsars, supernovae, supernova remnants, our Milky Way galaxy and active galactic nuclei. Together with radio-astronomer colleagues, he recently instigated projects using radio telescopes to do neutrino astronomy with large radio telescopes and the Moon as the neutrino target. Protheroe has given numerous invited talks at international conferences, been awarded prizes including the inaugural international Shakti P. Duggal Prize at the 19th International Cosmic Ray Conference held in La Jolla. Protheroe's research has led to well over 300 publications including more than 140 articles on his research in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Lists of his publications can be found at:
Dr Protheroe's publications on SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System
Dr Protheroe's publications on INSPIRE
