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Postdocs

Dr. Johan Olofsson

PhD: IPAG, Grenoble, France

Research area: Circumstellar disk evolution and planetary formation, with a strong emphasis on debris disks. Direct imaging, mid-IR spectroscopy, interferometry, SED modeling, and radiative transfer.

Refereed publications: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?library&libname=JohanOlofsson&libid=4f2186c9e1

email: johan.olofsson at uv.cl

Webpage: http://johan-olofsson.com

About my research:

My research goals are to better understand how planets are formed. To date we have discovered thousands of exoplanets, with a huge diversity in terms of mass, semi-major axis, and architecture. But from an observational point of view, we don’t really understand how these planets form. To tackle this challenge, I focus on the study of the circumstellar disks, which are the birthplaces of these planets, as well as direct detection and characterization of planets. By characterizing the evolution in time of these circumstellar disks, we have the chance to better understand the conditions that can lead to the formation of giant and terrestrial planets. Direct observations of young planets can give us valuable insight into their formation mechanism, which is currently poorly constrained.

I have always been interested by a multi-technique (spectroscopy, imaging, interferometry), multi-wavelengths (near-, mid, far-IR and mm) approach, and I always try to combine both observations and modeling of these data. I have a strong interest in leading statistical studies, in order to better understand classes of objects as a whole, but I also enjoy leading detailed studies of individual sources where you can get an in-depth understanding of the physics at stake in these systems at a given time.

Dr. Mónica Zorotovic

PhD: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2011)
Research Area: Evolution of Close Compact Binaries, Common Envelope Phase, Cataclysmic Variables, SNe Ia progenitors, Planets Around Evolved Binaries
Publications: ADS
Telephone: (+56 32) 299 5556 
email: mzorotovic at dfa.uv.cl
Webpage: https://sites.google.com/site/mzorotovic/

About my research: My work is focused on the simulation of close compact binary stars, and the comparison of these with observational data. The aim is to achieve a better understanding of the common envelope phase, a phase that most of these stars undergo, which is a clue for understanding the evolution of some of the most interesting objects in the universe, such as type Ia supernovae, cataclysmic variables, or close double white dwarfs, to name a few. In addition, the recently suggested possibility of planets around evolved close compact binaries has raised the interest in knowing how they might have formed.

Dr. Steven Parsons

PhD: Universidad de Warwick, UK.(2012) 
Research Area: White dwarfs, low-mass stars, compact binaries, eclipsing binaries. 
Publications: ADS
Telephone: (+56 32) 299 5557
email: steven.parsons at uv.cl

About my research: I study binary star systems containing at least one white dwarf component. My main focus is high-precision studies of eclipsing systems, combining both high-speed photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy to determine ultra-precise fundamental parameters for both stars in the binary. The eclipsing systems also allow us to search for planets in orbit around the binary by timing the eclipses and observing any long-term trends in the eclipse arrival times. I also utilise large surveys, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey in order to discover new eclipsing systems. I am also searching for close binaries containing white dwarfs with more massive FGK-type main-sequence companions, since these are possible supernova Ia progenitors

Dr. Sebastián Ramírez

PhD: Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, España.
Research Area: stellar formation, stellar clusters, Milky Way galaxy, infrared astronomy, massive stars. 
Publications: ADS(full) - ADS (refereed)
Telephone: (+56 32) 299 5555 
email: sebastian.ramirez at uv.cl

About my research: I am a postdoctoral researcher in the group of "Star Clusters" led by Jura Borissova and Radostin Kurtev and the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS), mainly focused on the characterization of new massive clusters in the Milky Way. The discovery and characterization of these objects is done with near-infrared data, such as 2MASS and VVV catalogs for photometry, and observations with SOFI, FLAMINGOS-2 or OSIRIS for spectroscopy. With the massive cluster census we expect to map the structure of the Milky Way, to estimate the rate of star formation and to understand mechanisms of massive star formation in our Galaxy, among other objectives

Teaching: Stellar astronomy FIS320, 2nd semester 2013

Dr. Juan Magaña

PhD: Doctorado en Ciencias (Astronomía), Instituto de Astronomía-UNAM, México
Research Area: Cosmology, Dark matter, Dark energy, Scalar field Cosmology, Numerical Simulations..
Publications: ADS
Telephone: (+56 32) 299 5557 
email: juan.magana at uv.cl

About my research: My research is focused on Cosmology, mainly, alternative models of dark matter and dark energy. I investigate a cosmological model which the dark matter is a scalar field or a Bose-Einstein condensate, lately I have focused in the numerical simulations of scalar dark halos. In addition, I study dynamical dark energy models and put constraints on their parameters using several cosmological data

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