CV

This is a short overview of my professional activities and educational background.

Work experience

  • July 2022 – present: Assistant Professor at University of Birmingham
  • Oct 2018 – July 2022: Senior Kavli Institute Fellow in exoplanets at University of Cambridge (fixed term for 5 years – discontinued one year early)
  • Sep 2019 – July 2022: Trevelyan Research Associate, Selwyn College, Cambridge
  • Sep 2017 – Sep 2018: Associate lecturer (education focused) at University of St Andrews (fixed term – maternity cover)
  • Aug 2014 – Aug 2017:  Research Fellow at University of St Andrews
  • Aug 2014 – Aug 2017: Tutor, lab demonstrator at University of St Andrews
  • Jan 2014 – Jul 2014:  Postdoctoral fellow at Centro de Astrofsica da Universidade do Porto
  • 2006 – 2008:  High School Mathematics teacher in various Belgian schools (10th – 12th grade)

Observational experience

  • Senior member of the HARPS-N Science team (2014 – present; 80 GTO nights per year till 2023A, ~300 hours in 2023B and 2024A): I organised the observation schedule and coordinated time-sharing with other large programmes (2016-2020).
  • Member of the HARPS3 Science Team & Terra Hunting Experiment (2018 – present)
  • Member of the PLATO Science Team (2019 – present), WP115100 (Astrophysical Noise Sources)
  • 57 telescope time proposals awarded as PI (8) or co-I (49) for
    HARPS, FEROS, UVES, NARVAL, FEROS, HARPS-N, HST, HERMES, ESPRESSO, CHEOPS
  • 105 nights conducted observations with HARPS (3.6m telescope, La Silla, Chile), HARPS-N (TNG, La Palma, Spain), and FEROS (2.2m telescope, La Silla, Chile)

Publications

I have 102 published refereed papers, 11 of which I am the first author and 4 led by students I supervised.

You can find a complete list of my publications and my metrics through ADS here.

A white paper on stellar variability and EPRV, written by Dr Heather Cegla and myself, was adopted and recommended in the STFC Astronomy Advisory Panel Roadmap 2022.

Membership and service

  • Member of HARPS-N Science Team since August 2014
  • Member of HARPS3 Science Working Group since October 2018
  • Member of PLATO Science Team since March 2019
  • Chair of CTAC Opticon June 2020 – June 2022
  • Member of CTAC Opticon: June 2018 – May 2020
  • Member of EPRV Working group for NASA-NSF Initiative (2019 – 2021)
  • Member of ISSI Team: Towards Earth-like alien worlds: “Know thy star, know thy planet” (2018 – 2019)
  • Fellow of the Royal and European Astronomical Society
  • Regular referee for MNRAS, A&A, ApJ, AJ, STFC, and for telescope proposals
  • SOC and LOC chair for 2024 UK Exoplanet Community Meeting (Birmingham)
  • SOC member for the 2023 ORP Proposal Writing School
  • SOC member for the Sun-as-a-star Workshop, March 2023, Flatiron Institute, New York.
  • SOC member of splinter session at Cool Stars 21, 2022, Toulouse, France: `Characterising stellar activity in the era of extreme radial velocity surveys of low-mass planets orbiting F-M stars’
  • SOC chair for parallel session at National Astronomy Meeting 2017, Hull, UK: `Discovering Exoplanets Hidden in the Stellar Noise’
  • LOC chair for `UK Exoplanet community meeting 2017 at University of St Andrews’ (2017)
  • LOC member for `Towards Other Earths II: the star-planet connection’ (2014)
  • Organisation of departmental colloquia, exoplanet seminars, and group meetings at Universities of Porto, St Andrews, Cambridge, and Birmingham

Education

  • 2010 – 2013: Porto University – Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto
    PhD at Department of Physics and Astronomy – with distinction
    Thesis topic: ‘Statistical studies of planet frequency – understanding planet formation’
    Supervisor: Nuno C. Santos
  • 2008 – 2010: Leiden University
    Master in Astronomy – Research Track
    Thesis topic: ‘Spectroscopic properties of young stellar objects in the Lupus Molecular Clouds’
    Supervisor: Ewine van Dishoeck and Isa Oliveira
  • 2005 – 2006: University of Ghent
    Teachers’ Degree in Mathematics
  • 2001 – 2006: University of Ghent
    Bachelor and Master Mathematics – Option: Mathematical physics and astronomy
    Thesis topic: ‘Synthesis imaging in radio-interferometry’
    Supervisor: Herwig Dejonghe and Pieter Buyle