Emily Roberts (she/her)
Introduction and Research
I am a third year PhD student in the white dwarf group in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Warwick. I am supervised by Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay. I will be working on the Gaia satellite's 100pc sample of white dwarfs and using it to learn bout the Star Formation History of the local neighbourhood.
I completed my MPhys Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh working with Nick Rowell for two years on the kinematics of white dwarfs as a proxy for age, and simulations of the 100pc Gaia sample to recover the Star Formation History of the local neighbourhood (which I am now continuing!)
The SFH is currently somewhat disputed, with some researching indicating a constant rate, and some research indicating a rate with two distinct peaks. By analysing the data from Gaia, expanding my simulations to account for more complex features such as binary white dwarfs and complex stellar atmospheres, I hope to improve our understanding of the history of the Milky Way.
I have also been working on predictions for the use and completeness of 4MOST's 100PC sub sample, with the telescope achieving first light in October 2025.
Publications
First Author:
- E. K. Roberts, P.-E. Tremblay et al. "Comparison of methods used to derive the Galactic star formation history from white dwarf samples" in MNRAS. arXiv: 2502.09579
- E. K. Roberts, P.-E. Tremblay, and Antoine Bédard "Assessing the star formation history of all-sky and part-sky 100pc white dwarf samples" in prep. arXiv: 2510.20624
Teaching
- Lab demonstrator for PX428: Physics Laboratory (23/24, 24/25, 25/26 academic years)
- Lab demonstrator for PX442: Laboratory for Mathematics & Physics Students (23/24, 24/25, 25/26 academic years)
Outreach and Engagement
- Chair of the Physics Postgraduate Committee (current role)
- ED&I Rep for Physics Postgraduate Committee (current role)
- Athena Swan Rep for Physics Postgraduate Committee (current role)
- Student Lead for the Astronomy and Astrophysics Equitea Committee (current role)
- Member of the Reasonable Adjustments in Labs Project - FoSEM Inclusive Education Fund Team, with funding for the year 25/26, an inter-departmental team to create reasonable adjustments for staff and students at Warwick working in lab environments
- Volunteer at the Warwick Planetarium (2023-2024)
Talks and Conferences
- Conference poster: National Astronomy Meeting, Durham, UK, July 2025
- Conference talk: European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting, Cork, Ireland June 2025
- Conference panel session: 'A day in the life of a PhD student', Conference for Undergraduate Women and Non-Binary Physicists UK&Ireland, University of Warwick, UK, 09/04/2025
- Conference talk: 'Equity and Inclusivity Practises in Academia', Conference for Undergraduate Women and Non-Binary Physicists UK&Ireland, University of Warwick, 08/04/2025
- Conference talk: 'Comparison of methods for determining the star formation history using Gaia WD samples', EuroWD: European Workshop on White Dwarfs, Barcelona, Spain, 8th August 2024
Other Experience
- Undergraduate Representative for Astrophysics at University of Edinburgh (2020-2023)
