The Team
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Jorge Lillo-Box
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Jorge Lillo-Box graduated in Physics from the University of La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain) and started his PhD in the Astrobiology Center (INTA-CSIC, Madrid, Spain) on the detection and characterization of extrasolar planets under the supervision of Dr. David Barrado. In particular, he focused on the ground-based follow-up of Kepler planet candidates with different techniques (high-spatial resolution and radial velocity). He performed a large and complete high-spatial resolution survey of the candidates to discard false positives. The radial vellocity follow-up allowed him to confirm several planets in different niches like the first planet transiting a giant star and the closest planet to a host star ascending the Red Giant Branch, Kepler-91b. He is interested in the evolution of planetary systems in the last stages of their lives and in the detection of minor bodies (TROY project). His instrumental interests are releated to the high-resolution spectrographs and high-precision photometry. |
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Adrien Leleu
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Adrien Leleu PhD student at IMCCE-Paris Observatory under the supervision of Philippe Robutel and Alexandre Correia. His thesis is mainly focused on the co-orbital dynamics from the point of view of orbital stability, detection methods and and spin dynamics. His PhD is expected to be completed by fall 2016, from when he will start a CHEOPS fellowship at the University of Bern. |
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Pedro Figueira
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Pedro Figueira obtained a Ph.D from University of Geneva in 2010, under the supervision of Michel Mayor and Francesco Pepe. He is now an FCT researcher (Investigador FCT) at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, where he works on the fast-paced topic of detection and characterization of extrasolar planets. He specialized in deriving precise radial velocities, both in the visible and in the near infra-red domains, and currently devotes most of his time to instrumentation for precise RV. Among the latest projects, he is Project Scientist for NIRPS, Co-I of the HELIOS experiment, portuguese representative of the Science Advisory team for ESPRESSO, HARPS-N collaborator, and Portuguese coordinator for SPIRou. He is also involved in the upcoming PLATO and HIRES missions. Pedro likes Belgian beer and Lindy Hop. |
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Nuno C. Santos
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Nuno C. Santos has significant work on extra-solar planet search and characterization projects using high resolution spectroscopy and transit photometry, as well as in the study of the star-planet connections. He is Co-PI of the ESPRESSO-ESO project, and board member of the ESA CHEOPS and PLATO2.0 missions. Leading involvement also in HIRES@E-ELT and NIRPS ESO projects. In the Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciências do Espaço/Universidade do Porto leads the Planetary Systems team. Has been responsible for the Planetary Systems Master level course at the Departamento de Física e Astronomia of the Universidade do Porto. |
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Philippe Robutel
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Philippe Robutel is a researcher in astronomy and celestial mechanics at the IMCCE/Paris Observatory. Several topics like the n-boby problem, the dynamics of planetary systems, the Hamiltonian perturbation theories or the rotation of celestial bodies, are among his main areas of interest. For about ten years, the dynamics of co-orbital bodies (Jovian Trojans, co-orbital satellites of Saturn, and more recently co-orbital resonance in extrasolar planetary systems) is at the core of his scientific activities. |
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Alexandre Correia
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Alexandre C. M. Correia Researcher in planetary physics, dynamics and exoplanets. Some selected works: Demonstration that the retrograde rotation of Venus is a natural outcome of its dynamics. Demonstration that the 3/2 spin-orbit resonance of Mercury is the most probable outcome due to chaotic evolution. Studies on the geophysical effects that modify the spin and the orbits of planets and satellites, in particular tidal effects and core-mantle friction. Detection of exoplanets in multi-body systems using the radial-velocity technique. Development of algorithms to perform N-body adjustments to observational data. Development of tools to perform a quick dynamical analysis of multi-planetary systems (more details at http://sweet.ua.pt/correia ). |
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David Barrado
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David Barrado Born in Madrid, Spain, David Barrado completed a degree in physics, specializing in astrophysics, at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. At this same university he started work on a doctorate that he would go on to complete at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge (USA). He then spent several years as a post-doctoral researcher at a number of institutes in the United States (including as a Fulbright scholar during his time at CfA), Germany (Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie, in Heidelberg) and Spain (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid). David now works at the European Space Astronomy Center (ESAC, Madrid) as a member of the National Technical Aerospace Institute (INTA), part of the Astrobiology Center (CAB), a combined institute made up of INTA and the Center for Higher Scientific Research (CSIC). With the INTA team he led research on the MIRI, an infrared instrument that will fly with the forthcoming space telescope, the JWST. He has also been involved in the development of a number of other astronomical instruments. For two years he was head of the Stellar and Exoplanets Astrophysics Laboratory, as a member of the CAB, and later Director of the Hispano-German Astronomy Center observatory in Calar Alto for three years. His research interests focus on the properties of stars in open star clusters, as well as detecting and characterizing substellar objects and exoplanets. More generally he has specialized in studying the formation of stars and planetary systems using various observational techniques: from visible light to distant infrared, using images and spectroscopes, via both terrestrial and space telescopes. This observation work has seen him publish close to one hundred and fifty articles in prestigious scientific journals. He also combines his research with tireless outreach activities. With Spanish blog, Cuaderno de Bitacora Estelar (see http://www.madrimasd.org/blogs/astrofisica/) has a very large audience. |
If you are a researcher interested in the detection of trojan planets, please contact us to join the crew.