About me

I am a first year PhD student in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick, supervised by David Brown. My research focusses on detecting and characterising circumbinary planets from space-based transiting planet surveys, particularly from the TESS mission.

Current research

Circumbinary planets (CBPs) are planets that orbit both components of a stellar binary. Currently, only 14 transiting CBPs have been discovered, while thousands of transiting planets have been discovered around single stars. This discrepancy is partially due to observational bias, but also due to their orbital properties; CBPs tend to have long periods and their orbital planes precess, such that a CBP can oscillate between transiting and non-transiting orbital configurations on timescales of decades. My research aims to develop a better understanding of these planetary systems by increasing the population of confirmed transiting CBPs, developing techniques to enable more robust detection of the transits of these planets, and determining their characteristics. This primarily involves analysing data from space-based surveys, particularly TESS, as well as data from archival or follow-up observations to characterise planet candidates. Increasing the number of confirmed CBPs will not only help us understand the statistics of the CBP population, and how they fit into the general population of exoplanets, but will also help us to understand their complex formation processes and dynamical history.

Past research

• Characterising exocomets in the far-UV (supervisor: Paul Strøm) - Final year MPhys project (2022)
• White dwarfs as tracers of stellar and galactic evolution: analysing the first data from SDSS-V (supervisor: Boris Gänsicke) - URSS summer project (2021)
• Spectroscopic characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres: benchmarking analysis techniques (supervisor: Matteo Brogi) - URSS summer project (2020)

Teaching and Outreach

• PX146: Key Skills for Physics - Senior Graduate Teaching Assistant
• Volunteering for The Planetarium
• Co-organiser for Astronomy on Tap (Coventry)

Conferences and Workshops

• STFC Introductory Summer School in Astronomy 2023, University of Hull (attended)
• UKEXOM 2024, University of Birmingham (presented a posterLink opens in a new window)
• ESP2024: PLATO Planetary Systems - From Formation to Observed Architectures, Catania Astrophysical Observatory (attended online)
• Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers, Penn State University (attended online)
• TESS Science Conference III, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (presented a posterLink opens in a new window)
• Celebrating 21 Years of Astronomy at Warwick, University of Warwick (attended)

Publications

Contributing

• K. Inight et al. "Cataclysmic Variables from Sloan Digital Sky Survey – V. The search for period bouncers continues", MNRAS 525, 3, 3597 (Nov 2023)