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SUMMARY:Songs of the Stars: unravelling stellar music with asteroseismolog
 y - Professor Conny Aerts\, KU Leuven
DTSTART:20260227T173000Z
DTEND:20260227T183000Z
UID:TALK235111@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Janet Gibson
DESCRIPTION:Abstract\n\nSince two decades it is possible to measure the se
 ismic activity of stars with high precision. This is thanks to dedicated t
 elescopes operating from space. Using these recorded 'songs of the stars'\
 , asteroseismologist can gaze into stellar interiors. By doing this\, it i
 s possible to probe the physical conditions and chemical composition of th
 ese hot balls of gas millions of light years away. Asteroseismology is a u
 nique and powerful tool to determine the size\, mass\, and age of stars to
  a higher precision than ever before. It also offers a way to better under
 stand the fastest rotators in the Universe on their way to supernova explo
 sions and gravitational waves. Using the insights gained\, astrophycists a
 re able to perform archaeology in our Milky Way galaxy\, and to characteri
 se exoplanets. In this talk\, 2022 Kavli and 2024 Crafoord Laureate Conny 
 Aerts will explain how to use the songs of the stars to unravel their stor
 ies and to see the invisible.\n\nBiography\n\nConny Aerts graduated as mat
 hematician from Antwerp University (1988) and defended her PhD thesis in a
 strophysics at KU Leuven (1993). Competitive personal grants allowed her t
 o work as independent postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Fland
 ers (1994 - 2001)\, performing numerous stays in Europe\, Chile and the US
 A. She was appointed as Lecturer (2001)\, Associate Professor (2004)\, and
  Full professor (2007) at KU Leuven. She also leads the Chair in Asterosei
 smology at the Radboud University Nijmegen (NL\, 2004+) and is External Sc
 ientific Member of the Max Planck Society (Heidelberg\, 2019+).\n\nConny's
  research covers stellar astrophysics\, including stellar structure & evol
 ution and variable stars. She is a pioneer of asteroseismology\, which rec
 eived a major boost thanks to the CoRoT (2006+)\, Kepler (2009+)\, and TES
 S (2018+) space missions. Prior to high-precision space photometry\, Conny
  developed rigorous mathematical methods to detect and identify non-radial
  stellar oscillations in high-resolution time-series spectroscopy.  Her te
 am also designed and applied statistical classification methods in a machi
 ne-learning context\, discoving numerous gravity-mode pulsators in space p
 hotometry.  As Chair in Asteroseismology at the Radboud University Nijmege
 n\, Conny introduced herself into the topic of subdwarf stars\, their bina
 rity and pulsations\, with current focus on development and exploitation o
 f BlackGEM in tandem with gravitational wave studies. \n\nIn 2008\, Conny 
 was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant\, PROSPERITY to exploit CoRoT and Kepler
  space photometry. Her PhD students made major contributions\, such as the
  discovery of non-radial pulsation modes\, of dipole mixed modes\, and of 
 non-rigid rotation in red giants\, following her own detections of interna
 l mixing and rotation in massive stars.  The ERC offered her a 2nd AdG\, M
 AMSIE (Mixing and Angular Momentum tranSport in massIvE Stars\, 2016-2021)
  to bridge stellar physics\, asteroseismology\, and 3D simulations in orde
 r to quantify limitations in stellar evolution theory.  This culminated in
  the 2012 Francqui Prize and the 2020 5-year FWO Excellence Award\, also t
 ermed Belgian and Flemish Nobel Prizes\, where Conny was the first woman t
 o receive these prestigious awards in Science & Technology since their cre
 ation in 1933 and 1960\, respectively. Conny is the recipient of the 2022 
 Kavli prize in Astrophysics and the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy\; she
  acts as corresponding Principle Investigator of the 2022 ERC Synergy gran
 t 4D-STAR.\n\n\n\n
LOCATION:Lady Mitchell Hall\, Sidgwick Avenue
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