astronomy

Matthew Innes

Matthew Innes is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Matthew Innes rather than just read about it. In short: Matthew Innes is a British academic and university administrator who was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London. Academic career Innes grew up in West Yorkshire and by "sheer brute luck" earned a place to read History at the University of Cambridge.

Key takeaways

Matthew Innes belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Matthew Innes to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Matthew Innes from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Matthew Innes is a British academic and university administrator who was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London.

Academic career Innes grew up in West Yorkshire and by "sheer brute luck" earned a place to read History at the University of Cambridge. He earned a double first in his BA in 1991 and went on to complete a PhD in 1996, supervised by Rosamond McKitterick. Innes' first university appointment was to a Junior Research Fellowship at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1994. After subsequent spells at the University of Birmingham and the University of York, he joined Birkbeck, University of London as Lecturer in History in 1999. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2002, Reader in 2004, and finally Professor in 2006. Innes previously served as Head of the School of Historical Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Birkbeck. In 2008 he was appointed Pro-Vice-Master with responsibility for strategy, and served on the college's board of governors as an academic representative between 2005 and 2009. He was appointed Vice Master in June 2013. His title has since been changed to Deputy Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for academic and corporate affairs.

Research Innes' research interests are broadly located in the history of western Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the eleventh century, with particular specialisms in economic, social and cultural history.

Media work Innes has appeared twice as an expert panelist on the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time: first in 2006 on the Carolingian Renaissance, and then in 2014 on the Battle of Tours.

Honours and awards The Philip Leverhulme Prize for Outstanding Research (2004) The Royal Historical Society's Gladstone History Book Prize (2000) for State and society in the middle ages: the Middle Rhine Valley, 400-1000

Personal life Innes is married to Jayne.

Selected publications 'Memory, orality and literacy in an early medieval society', Past & Present 158 (1998), pp. 3-36 State and society in the early Middle Ages: the Middle Rhine Valley, 400-1000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) The uses of the past in the early Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) (co-edited with Yitzhak Hen) Introduction to early medieval Western Europe, 300-900: the sword, the plough and the book (London: Routledge, 2007) The Carolingian world (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (co-authored with Marios Costambeys and Simon MacLean) Documentary culture and the laity in the early Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) (co-edited with Warren C. Brown, Marios Costambeys and Adam J. Kosto) 'Queenship in dispute: Fastrada, history and law', in Elina Screen and Charles West (eds.), Writing the early medieval West: essays in honour of Rosamond McKitterick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), pp. 230-247

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Matthew Innes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Matthew Innes claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Matthew Innes before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Matthew Innes ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Matthew Innes

In research: Matthew Innes appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Matthew Innes in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Matthew Innes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academics of Birkbeck, University of London, Academics of the University of York, Alumni of the University of Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Matthew Innes outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Matthew Innes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Matthew Innes means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Matthew Innes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Matthew Innes in simple terms?

Matthew Innes is a British academic and university administrator who was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London. Academic career Innes grew up in West Yorkshire and by "sheer brute luck" earned a place to read History at the University of Cambri…

Why does Matthew Innes matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Matthew Innes?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Matthew Innes.