Research Fellows in Space Science 2022

 

At ESA, Guadalupe will continue working for ESA’s Euclid mission. She is a core developer of the code “Cosmological Likelihood for Observables in Euclid” (CLOE), written and maintained by the Euclid Consortium InterScience Taskforce Likelihood. CLOE will be an essential tool for the comparison of the future Euclid data against different theoretical models that aim to explain our Universe. Guadalupe will further extend CLOE to be able to constrain inflationary models in order to explain the origin of the primordial density perturbations that seeded the young Universe and evolved into today’s large scale structure.

 

 

 

Quentin studied engineering, environmental sciences and mathematics at Ecole des Mines (France), Imperial College (UK) and University of Cambridge (UK). He then completed his PhD in Astrophysics at the University College London (UK), focusing on the study of exoplanet atmospheres. During his PhD and first postdoctoral position, also held at UCL, he studied the atmospheric properties of exoplanets ranging from temperate super Earths to ultra-hot Jupiters with space telescopes such as Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Spitzer Space Telescope. He also joined the Ariel Consortium as a working group leader, actively supporting the development of the mission.

 

Joining ESA, Quentin will study the atmospheric properties of exoplanets with space telescopes. To do so, Quentin will look for signatures of molecular species, captured during transit and eclipse events, as well as phase-curve measurements. His study will involve the development of sophisticated atmospheric models and statistical techniques, taking full advantage of ESA and NASA observatories. Quentin will use data from facilities such as NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Spitzer and ESA’s CHEOPS, but also the recently launched NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and ESA’s future Ariel Telescope.

 

 

 

Chiara grew up in Gioiosa Ionica, a town located in Calabria, southern Italy. She received her Bachelor and Master degrees in Astrophysics at the University of Bologna (Italy) and then moved to Munich (Germany) to complete a PhD at the European Southern Observatory and Ludwig-Maximilians University. In 2019, she joined the University College London (UK) as a Research Fellow.

 

Chiara is interested in understanding the evolution of galaxies and the processes that stop their star formation activity, which vitally depends on the availability of gas. In particular, her research focuses on galaxies hosting accreting supermassive black holes at their centers, called active galactic nuclei. These are energetic phenomena that can profoundly influence galaxy growth. At ESA, Chiara will investigate galaxies in the young Universe, about 10 billion years ago, when star formation was the most intense. To this aim, she will use data across the electromagnetic spectrum collected by ground-based and space observatories, such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the NASA/ESA/CASA James Webb Space Telescope and ESA’s XMM-Newton. Her goal is characterizing the impact that supermassive black hole activity has on the host galaxy gas reservoir and star formation. These studies will be key to ultimately unveil how galaxies obtained the appearance we observe today.

 

 

 

Since the age of four, Willi wanted to study the stars and the planets, and become an astronaut. After his military service in the German Airforce, and obtaining a pilot’s license, he started studying physics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig (TUBS) in Northern Germany. His master degree focused on stellar astrophysics, planetary formation and magnetospheric sciences at Nagoya University (Japan) and at TUBS. In collaboration with TUBS and the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), Willi obtained his doctorate by investigating the influence of the solar wind on the peculiar and tiny magnetosphere and on the very thin sodium atmosphere (i.e., the exosphere) of Mercury.

 

As ESA fellow, Willi will continue his investigations of Mercury’s plasma environment through numerical hybrid modeling and spacecraft observations: One focus lies on extreme solar wind conditions that are present when the Sun suddenly ejects much more plasma than usual (called interplanetary coronal mass ejections), which results in a much more compressed magnetosphere than usual, challenging our understanding of magnetospheres. The other focus lies on forecasting and explaining measurements of the planetary environment by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission, focusing on magnetic fields, electric currents, and plasma densities of solar wind protons and planetary ions.

 

 

 

 

 

Nicola (he/him) studied physics at the University of Warwick (UK) where he also completed his PhD in astronomy focusing on white dwarfs, i.e. the remnants left over from the evolution of stars similar to our Sun, and large area surveys. Nicola remained at Warwick for his first postdoc leading the work on the large-scale identification of white dwarfs using data from ESA’s Gaia mission. In 2019, Nicola was awarded the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Research Fellowship and moved to the ESO headquarters in Garching (Germany) where he worked since.

 

Nicola’s project at ESA focuses on using white dwarfs to probe the composition of ancient rocky exo-planets and study the final stages in the evolution of planetary systems. In his work he combines astrometric measurements from ESA’s Gaia and IR photometry from large-area surveys with spectroscopic observations to identify and characterize rare white dwarfs which accrete the remnants of broken-up rocky planets. Nicola’s research aims to establish how common planetary compositions like that of Earth are, when this type of planets first started to form in the Milky Way, and what their final fate is.

 

 

 

 

 

Alicia (she/her) finished her physics and astrophysics studies at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). While finishing her master’s degree, Alicia became an ESA/ESAC trainee. She then moved to Amsterdam where she obtained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) investigating the X-ray luminosity of high-mass X-ray binaries. Alicia expanded her expertise studying short gamma-ray bursts and electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events during her first postdoctoral position at Northwestern University in Chicago (USA).

 

Alicia’s project at ESA aims to shed light on the physical processes under the extreme conditions of high gravity and magnetic fields in the surroundings of highly magnetised neutron stars. For that, she studies a type of X-ray binaries - called Be/X-ray transients - that harbour neutron stars with high-magnetic fields that accrete material from their giant stellar companions. In particular, Alicia is interested in understanding why these systems shine at low X-ray luminosities and why different sources show a variety of X-ray behaviour at these luminosities. Alicia will use XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL to investigate the different mechanisms behind the X-ray behaviour of Be/X-ray transients systems.