Deanne Coppejans (she/her)

I am an associate professor in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group of the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick. I use multi-wavelength observations to study accretion physics and the high energy physics of astronomical outflows such as jets, winds and stellar explosions in extreme environments. Some of the questions that I am most interested in include: How are jets launched and collimated? What is the physics driving the explosions of supernovae and transients? What are the new fast transients that being discovered by modern telescopes? What is the nature of the newly discovered classes of white dwarf pulsars and long period radio transients? What is the radio emission mechanism in white dwarf binaries? My research spans the explosions of stars, to the accretion physics of compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs) as they strip material off of companion stars, to the merger of compact objects as revealed by gravitational wave detectors.

Scientific interests:

Accretion and outflow physics in:

• Transients such as
  • fast blue optical transients
  • tidal disruption events
  • supernovae
  • gamma ray bursts (long and short)
  • stellar mergers
  • novae
  • long period radio transients
• Compact binaries such as
  • cataclysmic variables
  • white dwarf pulsars
  • AM CVns
  • X-ray binaries

You can find a list of my research papers here.

I am advertising a PhD position to work with me and Dr Ingrid Pelisoli on the topic “Determining the Nature of Accreting and Explosive Radio Transients”.  

This will be a 3.5-4 year position and will start in October 2026. The application deadline is 13 January 2026. Further information on the position and the application process is available here. Further information on the project is included below. If you have further questions about the project, you are welcome to contact me via email. 

PhD Project: Determining the Nature of Accreting and Explosive Radio Transients 

Supervisors: Dr Deanne Coppejans and Dr Ingrid Pelisoli 

Astrophysical transients are sources that brighten and fade on timescales of sub-seconds up to years. In recent years, improvements in telescopes and search algorithms have led to the discovery of several new classes of transients – such as white dwarf pulsars, long period radio transients and luminous fast blue optical transients. Although progress has been made towards understanding what these objects are, we still have fundamental questions about their natures and physics. For example, what are the underlying sources behind these transient events? What are the emission mechanisms? Radio observations offer a unique view of these objects, as they probe the outflows (such as winds and jets from white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes), high-energy shocks and magnetic reconnection events. When used in combination with complementary multi-wavelength observations (X-ray, optical, UV) we can address these important outstanding questions.  

The successful candidate will use radio and multi-wavelength observations from telescopes such as the Very Large Array (VLA), MeerKAT, Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO), the Thai National Telescope, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA), and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to study the physics of newly discovered types of transients and understand their nature.