João P. Bento

Contact Information
Department of Physics, University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 7854174622
email: joao.bento(at)warwick.ac.uk

Research interests: Extrasolar planets, planetary atmospheres, ground-based automated photometric surveys, adaptive
optics.

Education:

• University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
  
  • PhD, Astrophysics, (expected submission date: March 2012)
    • Dissertation Topic: “Research and Development of Ground-based transiting extrasolar planet projects”
    • Advisor: Peter J. Wheatley

• Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
  • MSci., Physics, June, 2008
    

• Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 1st Year modules, Physics degree, July, 2004
    

• Conservatorio Regional de Setubal, Setubal, Portugal
  • Complementary Piano and Music degree, July, 2004
    

Awards: Winner of the first “Astrocosmos nas Escolas” astronomy talk competition at the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon, 2003. Talk entitled “Extra-solar Planets”.

Work and Academic Experience:

• University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, October 2008 - present
  Graduate Student: Includes current PhD research, PhD coursework, telescope time at several astronomical observatories.
  Laboratory Demonstrator: Duties included demonstrating undergraduate students through experiments in the teaching labs, marking their work and instructing other demonstrators on details of the experiments.
  

• Royal Mail Services, Surrey, UK, October 2004 - July 2008
  Temporary Postman: Worked as a temporary postman, fulfilling all the duties of regular postmen at several locations within Surrey county.

Conference Presentations and Posters:

• Bento, J.P., Wheatley, P.J., Finding smaller planets with SuperWASP, April, 2010, Poster presentation at the National Astronomy Meeting, Glasgow, UK.
• Bento, J.P., Wheatley, P.J., SuperWASP detector map analysis, September, 2010, Presentation at the SuperWASP consortium meeting at St. Andrews University, UK.
• Bento, J.P., Wheatley, P.J., Transmission photometry of WASP-17b, September, 2011, Poster presentation at the Extreme Solar Systems II conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, US.
  

Computer Skills:

• Languages: Python, Q, some knowledge of C++ and Fortran. Some use of Unix shell scripts.
• Applications: IRAF/PyRAF, Starlink, Latex, Multi-platform spreadsheet, presentation and word
processing software. Extensive knowledge of specific photometry and light-curve fitting packages,
such as the ULTRACAM pipeline and Tom Marsh’s lcurve and MCMC routines.
• Operating Systems: Unix/Linux, OSX and Windows.

Other Experience:

• Astronomy group representative on the Physics department Student-Staff Liaisson Committee, 2009-2010.
  
• Co-organiser of weekly physics postgraduate talks at University of Warwick, 2009-2011.
• President of Imperial College Astronomy Society, 2006-2007.
  
• Imperial College Snooker Club Secretary for 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 seasons.
  
• Part of the committees of the Snooker, Pool and Windsurf clubs at University of Warwick, holding several different positions at different times during 2009-2011.

Other interests: Music and musical performance, cue sports, windsurfing.