Massive stars end their lives as powerful supernova explosions which acts to both synthesise chemical elements and inject energy into the surrounding environment. Core collapse supernova explosions have diverse properties and are observed to have a range of different progenitors. The majority of massive stars are predicted to explode as supernova as a red supergiant star (RSG). In this area we are interested in the physical properties of RSGs including their multiplicity properties and how binary interactions affect stellar endpoints. One of the key outstanding questions in this area is the so-called Red Supergiant Problem, which is a mismatch between the stars that we observe in the Local Universe and the mass distribution of the supernova that these stars supposedly produce. Our group at the CAB works towards solving this problem by studying RSG populations in external galaxies, particularly in the Magellanic Clouds.
