DAWN Alumni
This page is dedicated to the people who have graduated as MSc or PhD from DAWN, or people who have in other ways spend significant amounts of time at DAWN.
John R. Weaver
PhD Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
Previously, I have interned as a summer researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Leiden Observatory, and the Maria Mitchell Observatory. I am also the project director of the spectroscopy database at the American Association of Variable Star Observers. Beyond academia, I am a frequent contributor to popular science publications, and have been a long-time volunteer at public observatories. |
Vasily KokorevPhD Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I received my master’s degree in Physics with Astrophysics at the University of Sussex in 2018, where I have carried out work related to the 21 cm radio astronomy, while being advised by Mark Sargent. |
Carlos Gómez-GuijarroPhD | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
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Mikkel StockmannPhD | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I utilized the Danish build X-Shooter instrument attached to the Very Large Telescope located in Paranal, Chile for my thesis. Together with time granted on the prestigious Hubble Space Telescope I have studied the structural properties and stellar populations of the largest sample of massive quiescent galaxies at z>2. In a closely related project, I was awarded additional time with X-Shooter, to study these massive dead galaxies with very high resolution by taking advantage of the beautiful effect called gravitational lensing. I take part in public outreach both via Astronomy On Tap events and popular scientific talks. Outside astronomy I like to rock climb and enjoy the cultural life of Copenhagen. I was awarded my doctorate degree after successfully defending my thesis on the 23rd of October, 2019. |
Isabella CortzenPostdoc| Institut de radioastronomie millimetriqué (IRAM) I obtained my master’s degree from the Dark Cosmology Centre in 2016, where I studied the star formation and gas properties in a large sample of starburst and main-sequence galaxies at 0 < z < 6. In 2020, I received my PhD degree at DAWN under the supervision of Georgios Magdis. During my PhD, I studied the ISM properties of galaxies by comparing different methods to measure the dust and molecular gas properties of star-forming galaxies. I am now a postdoctoral researcher at IRAM, where I work on zGAL, a large NOEMA project aimed at determining the physical properties of the brightest submillimeter galaxies in the Herschel fields. |
Athanasios AnatasiouMSc Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I originally come from Greece where I graduated from the University of Athens in 2018 and obtained my BSc degree. |
Cecilie S. NørholmMSc| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
I enjoy being able to work with observational data, which was something I first experienced in 2016. Here, I attended a course on observational astronomy where I, together with a group of fellow students, planned and executed observations at the Nordic Optical Telescope. When not working, I am very interested in communication of science, which I enjoy doing through my student job at the Tycho Brahe Planetarium as well as by giving lectures to secondary school students attending internships at University of Copenhagen. |
Christina KonstantopoulouMSc| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I completed my internship at the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS), National Observatory of Athens, supervised by Vassilis Charmandaris. |
Simon PochindaMSc Student | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Physics in 2018 at the University of Southern Denmark under the supervision of Mads Toudal Frandsen, where I worked on numerically determining the dark matter distribution of merging galaxy clusters. Following my Bachelor’s degree in Physics I moved to the University of Copenhagen to pursue my lifelong interest in Astronomy. During my time at the University of Copenhagen I have also studied abroad at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London and participated in the Nordic Optical Telescope Summer School at La Palma offered by the Instrument Center for Danish Astrophysics. My current work involves characterization of high redshift dusty galaxies within the GOODS-S legacy field using multiwavelength observational data. This involves determination of photometric redshifts through fitting computationally generated galaxy templates using the EaZY code. |
Magdalena Maria OtapMSc Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I am partially doing my thesis in cooperation with the Brorfelde Observatory and the Online Observatory project with the purpose of testing and further developing online astronomy teaching material for primary and secondary school levels. I originally got my first Masters degree in computer science from Copenhagen University (2010), where my focus was human computer interaction and online communities. Besides studying, I write science-related stories and articles, and experiment with online startups with the purpose of promoting scientific curiosity in the public. |
Suk Joo KoMSc| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
My master’s thesis is focused on the spectroscopy of red quasars, the selection of quasars of red spectral energy. The motivation is to study missed population of red quasars from previous technique of selecting quasars. I chose to write my thesis at DAWN to learn techniques of observational astrophysics and study the early Universe, galaxies and quasars. |
André Endrup HartwigsenMSc| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN) I am a MSc graduate from the Cosmic Dawn Center supervised by Johan Peter Uldall Fynbo and Bo Milvang-Jensen. My thesis searched for Lyman break galaxies at the epoch of reionization aiming for redshifts beyond 8. The specific focus was on finding Lyman alpha emitter subsiding at redshift 8.8, with peaks located in the 1.18 micron NB118 filter from UltraVISTA DR4. This was achieved with preliminary access to the COSMOS2020 catalogs. My bachelor’s degree were multiple numerical simulations of a DAMIC experiment shield, meant to protect highly important silicon from cosmic rays during transport, to avoid tritium production. Supervised by Mogens Dam and Børge Svane Nielsen. I enjoy working with large quantities of data and get very deeply involved in coding and the search for accurate and significant results. I originate from the southwest of Jutland and found my passion for astronomy and the universe, through manual observations using my own telescope, taking advantage of the dark skies in this area of Denmark. |
Charlie MeinertzMSc Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
Personally, my interests are in the observational side of astrophysics, and data analysis techniques, especially working with large datasets and finding the golden nuggets of science within. I hope to continue my studies as a PhD-student and eventually end up as a researcher in astrophysics. |
Jiaming YaoMSc Student | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
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Han LeiMSc Student | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
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Nina BonaventuraPostdoc | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I received my PhD degree in Physics in 2017 from McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Tracy Webb (McGill Space Institute), for my contribution to the unexpected discovery of significant star formation activity occurring within a special class of galaxies previously known to be ‘dead’ and inactive. Previously, I held a NASA Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) Data Specialist position at the Chandra X-ray Center, working on a variety of scientific and technical projects as a member of the Science Data Systems team. I have also worked as a telescope support scientist at Lowell Observatory while a graduate Master’s student at Boston University, personally utilizing and assisting others in the operation of infrared and optical imaging and spectroscopic instruments. |
Francesco ValentinoAssistant professor | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
I moved to Copenhagen as a DARK fellow at the Dark Cosmology Centre and then I joined the Cosmic Dawn Center as a DAWN fellow, working in close collaboration with Prof. Georgios Magdis on the project “Gas to Stars - Stars to Dust: Tracing star formation across cosmic time” supported by a Velux Foundation Grant. I obtained my PhD in 2016 from the Université Paris Diderot (Paris 7) under the supervision of Dr. Emanuele Daddi at the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA) in Saclay. |
Seiji Fujimoto
DAWN Fellow | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
My research interest is the early Universe, including the topics of the formation and evolution of massive galaxies and black holes, the structure formation, and the interplay between a galaxy and its environment. I’m working in international projects of e.g., “The ALMA Large Program to Investigate CII at Early Times (ALPINE)”, “ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey (ALCS)”, and “Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP)”. I also work as one of the external collaborators in the cosmology group in Scuola Normale Superiore headed by Prof. Andrea Ferrara. You will find more details on my personal website. |
Iary DavidzonDAWN Fellow | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)Self-employed entrepreneur in the world of Science Education
My main goal is to leverage this exquisite data in the exploration of the first 2-3 billion years of universe’s life, investigating star formation mechanisms in primeval galaxies, especially the most massive ones. I am also interested in the connection of these baryonic processes to the underlying dark matter structure. I study galaxy environment also in large-scale surveys (VIPERS) and galaxy clusters (BUFFALO). Before moving to Copenhagen I joined Peter Capak’s group at the California Institute of Technology, contributing to introduce novel machine learning methods in the research field of galaxy evolution. Previously I worked in Marseille (France) within the COSMOS collaboration, and before that I was a graduate student in Bologna, where I obtained my PhD in 2014 under the supervision of Micol Bolzonella and Lauro Moscardini. In the spare time I like playing ukulele and tinkering with my bikes, which is a quite appropriate hobby now that I live in (probably) the best cycling city in the world. |
Jonatan SelsingPostdoc | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I have made conclusive contribution to the discovery that was named the Science Breakthrough of the year 2017, and continue to play an important role in the follow-up of gravitational wave counterparts through my role as instrument specialist in the ENGRAVE consortium. Additional to my strong interest in the gravitational wave counterparts, I take an active part in the follow-up of Gamma-Ray Bursts, where I use facilities in both Chile under ESO, but also on La Palma at the NOT telescope. I regularly give public outreach talk to the public and produce to popular scientific magazines. |
Daniel CeverinoAssistant Professor & DAWN fellow | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
Before coming to DAWN, Dr Ceverino was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (Heidelberg, Germany) and a ‘Juan de la Cierva’ fellow in the department of theoretical physics of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain). Previously, he did a Post-Doc at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) in the cosmology group of Prof. Avishai Dekel. In 2008, Dr Ceverino finished his PhD thesis at New Mexico State University (USA), under the supervision of Prof. Anatoly Klypin, |
Kimihiko NakajimaDAWN Fellow | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
My interest also includes the stellar population, inter-stellar medium conditions in galaxies, and their evolution across comic time, through spectroscopic observation in conjunction with photo-ionization modelling. I am a member of international collaborations of the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey and the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program.
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Christian Kragh Jespersen
Beyond academia, I am a member of the Danish Youth Association of Science, where I dedicate my time to primarily PR and teaching high school – students with a particular interest in physics. In extension to this, I arrange inspiration lectures for physics students every Friday afternoon. I also enjoy many different kinds of watersports, having been on the Danish National Windsurfing Team for quite a long time, along with rock climbing, linguistics (having lived many different places) and general puzzle solving. |
Hans Ulrik Nørgaard-NielsenSenior Scientist | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
I have been Principal Investigator for the Planck Reflector Programme and for the JWST MIRI Primary Support Structure. I have been member of the Planck Science Team since 1997 and Chairman of the MIRI High – z Universe Working Group since 2010. |