Almudena Visser Velez

I am a PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick.

My project is funded by the Warwick Scholarship Prize, and will be using the Gaia space telescope and Vera Rubin Observatory to investigate transiting planets, disintegrating planetesimals and debris discs around white dwarfs. Followup observations with the VLT and JWST will explore the physical processes in planetary atmospheres. Through studying white dwarf planetary systems, this project will contribute to overall understanding of the formation, structure, and evolution of planets in a way that cannot be achieved from studies of "normal" planets orbiting main-sequence stars, which is particularly fascinating as our own Solar System, and indeed most stars in the galaxy will end their lives in this way.

I previously completed my MPhil in Planetary Science and Life in the Universe at the University of Cambridge in 2025 as a Parasol Foundation scholar, and my BSc in Physics with Astrophysics in 2024 at the University of Exeter.

My PhD supervisor is Boris Gänsicke.