I am a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick and I am currently an ERC Advanced Grant Fellow (2021-2026), leading the WDPLANETS project.

My research is largely focused on the study of white dwarfs, the burnt-out cores of stars with initial masses <10Msun. I am particularly interested in the evolution of planetary systems beyond the main sequence, compact white dwarf binaries and their pathways towards thermonuclear supernovae, and generally observational studies of single and binary white dwarfs. I'm giving an overview into these topics in this short interview, which was recorded as part of the 2023 meeting of the European Astronomical Society in Krakow. If you are curious about the fate of the Solar System, have a look how it may look in a few billion years. And f you think this sounds interesting, have a look at some possible PhD projects.

As part of my work, have gained a fair bit of expertise in stellar atmospheres, ultraviolet astronomy, and large-scale astronomical surveys. In particular, I am making extensive use of the Hubble Space Telescope to study white dwarfs in the ultraviolet, where the rich set of atomic transitions provides unrivalled insight into their physical properties.

I am leading spectroscopic surveys of white dwarfs within DESI, WEAVE, and SDSS-V, which have started taking data in 2020. Over the next five years, these facilities will increase the number of spectroscopically confirmed white dwarfs by an order of magnitude. I am also a member of the ZTF-II collaboration, which provides exquisite photometry of the entire Northern hemisphere, ideal to study time-domain phenomena in white dwarf systems. The spectroscopic and photometric data for > 100,000 white dwarfs will enable extremely detailed statistical studies as well as identifying intrinsically rare stars that represent either extremes in physical parameter space, or very short-lived evolutionary phases.

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Publications from ADS: refereedLink opens in a new window / allLink opens in a new window / recent papers from arxivLink opens in a new window

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Current and former group members:

• Paula Izquierdo: current postdoc and former PhD student (graduated in 2021)
• Andrew Swan: current postdoc
• Snehalata Sahu: current postdoc
• Felipe Lagos: current postdoc
• Anna-Maria Cutolo: current PhD student
• Sergio Ramírez Ramírez: current PhD student
• Jamie Williams: current PhD student
• Keith Inight: honorary research fellow at the University of Warwick and former PhD student (graduated in 2023)
• Ethan Moorfield: former MSc student, (graduated in 2025), now PhD student at the University of Southampton
• Matthew Hoskin: former PhD student (graduated in 2024), now Lead Analyst at Greater Manchester Combined Authority
• Christopher Manser: former PhD student (graduated in 2018) and postdoc, now Mathematical modeller at Network Rail
• Odette Toloza: former PhD student (graduated in 2018) and postdoc, now Assistant Professor at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
• Anna Pala: former PhD student (graduated in 2018) and postdoc, now Staff Astronomer at the European Southern Observatory
• Conor Talbot: former MSc student (graduated in 2018), now Software Engineer at AVAMAE
• Roberto Raddi: former postdoc, now Ramon y Cajal fellow at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
• Dimitri Veras: former postdoc, now Associate Professor at the University of Warwick
• Paul Chote: former postdoc, now Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick
• Mark Hollands: former PhD student (graduated in 2017), now Prize Fellow at the University of Warwick
• David Wilson: former PhD student (graduated in 2017), now Research Associate at the University of Colorado Boulder
• JJ Hermes: former postdoc, now Assistant Professor at Boston University
• Nicola Pietro Gentile Fusillo: former PhD student (graduated in 2015), now Montalcini Fellow and Tenured Researcher at the Università degli studi di Trieste
• Sandra Greiss: former PhD and MSc student (graduated in 2014 and 2011), now Data Engineer at the International Air Transport Association
• Richard Palmer: former MSc student (graduated in 2013)
• Elmé Breedt: former postdoc, now Astronomical Data Scientist at the Institute of Astronomy
• Jonathan Girven: former PhD student (graduated in 2012), now Tech Lead at Oracle Sauce Video
• John Southworth: former postdoc, now Lecturer in Astrophysics at Keele University
• Timothy Kinnear: former MSc student (graduated in 2009), now Lecturer in Computational Astrophysics at the University of Kent
• Pablo Rodríguez Gil: former postdoc, now Associate Professor at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and Universidad de La Laguna
• Monihar Dillon: former PhD student (graduated in 2009), now Founder & CEO of XSAIA
• Alberto Rebassa-Mansergas: former PhD student (graduated in 2009), now Associate Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
• Amornrat Aungwerojwit: former PhD student (graduated in 2007), now Associate Professor at Naresuan University

Write to:

Department of Physics,
University of Warwick,
Coventry, CV4 7AL
UK

Contact Details:

Office: F.48 (Millburn)
Tel:+44 (0)2476574741
Fax:+44 (0)2476692016

E-Mail:boris.gaensicke@warwick.ac.uk

Google ScholarLink opens in a new window

ORCID Link opens in a new window

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