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