People in the team
Anne-Marie Lagrange is a director of research at CNRS. She works at LESIA (Observatoire de Paris/PSL) et, as an associate, at IPAG. Since more than 30 years, her work has been dedicated to the search and characterisation of exoplanets, exocomets and debris disks, aiming at understanding how planetary systems form and evolve, and at exploring their diversity. To do so, she uses various techniques, and, in particular, high contrast imaging and the radial velocity technique.
Anthony Boccaletti is a director of research at LESIA working at LESIA (Observatoire de Paris/PSL). He has interests in direct imaging of exo-planetary systems at various evolutionnary stages, and to associated observing techniques. He was involved in two major projects, the MIRI camera on the James Webb Space Telescope and the instrument SPHERE at Very Large Telescope. Currently, he is responsible of a project for an upgrade of the instrument SPHERE. He ran several observing programs of young systems, which led for instance to the discovery of fast-moving dust features in the debris disk of AU Mic, or recently of the signs of protoplanet in formation around AB Aur.
Raphaël Galicher is Professor Associate (Université de Paris/Observatoire de Paris-PSL) working on imaging of exoplanets and circumstellar disks. Expert in processing data recorded by differential imaging techniques using coronagraphic instruments. He has conceived the SpeCal tool for the Sphere/VLT consortium. He is also an expert in instrumentation for very high contast imaging (wavefront sensing and control and coronagraphy) : co-PI of the THD2 bench, unique performance in Europe, that is used to prepare future instruments (spatial missions and extremely large telescopes).
Johan Mazoyer is a Research Scientist at LESIA (Observatoire de Paris/PSL) since 2020, working both in astronomical instrumentation and observations for the study of exoplanets and debris disks. His instrumentation research is about developing optical and pros-processing methods to make this type of observations a reality. In parallel, he analyzes debris disks images (Kuiper belt analogs) from current high-contrast ground- and space-based instruments, to understand the late stages of planetary system formation and evolution
Gaël Chauvin is an expert in direct imaging of exoplanets dedicated to the study of their physical properties and atmospheres, their formation and evolution processes, the diversity of planetary architectures, in particular to understand the origin of our solar system and the emergence of life. He is at the origin of the first discoveries of exoplanets in imaging, obtaining their first spectra to constrain their physical and atmospheric properties, the first statistical studies on the demography of young giant planets in the external parts of planetary architectures and exploration of extreme exoplanetary systems in multiple stars. He is strongly involved in the preparation and scientific exploitation of high contrast instruments (ADONIS, NaCo and SPHERE), particularly within the framework of the SPHERE consortium to scientifically animate its exploitation and its visibility. He has more recently invested in the organization of the SPHERE + project as part of the VLT roadmap for the next 10 years. In view of the extremely large European telescope project, on the sky from 2026, he is strongly involved in the animation of the French and European community for the preparation science and the definition of first-light instruments (MICADO and HARMONI) around the theme of exoplanets.
Pierre Baudoz is assistant astronomer at LESIA (Paris Observatory / PSL). He is interested in the imagery of exo-planetary systems. His expertise relates to instrumentation for High Contrast Imaging: coronagraphy, sensing and control of the wavefront. He proposed and implemented several innovative technical solutions (M-FQPM, SCC) and was involved in two major projects, the MIRI camera of the James Webb Space Telescope and the SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope. He is responsible for a test bench dedicated to instrumental solutions for the direct imaging of exoplanets: the THD2 bench, with unique performance in Europe, aims to optimize future instruments for space missions and extremely ELT telescopes (ELT).
Mickaël Bonnefoy is a staff researcher at CNRS. He works at the IPAG (Grenoble Observatory) on the direct imaging detection and characterization of exoplanets in order to understand how planetary systems form and evolve, and what are the exoplanet properties (orbits, evolution, atmosphere). He has contributed to the study of emblematic systems (Beta Pictoris, HR8799, HIP 65426), using in particular the SPHERE instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). He has been pioneering the use of integral field spectrographs (yielding hyperspectral data; VLT/SINFONI, VLT/MUSE, Keck/OSIRIS) for extracting high quality exoplanet spectra and has conveived the tool TExTRIS for analysing such data. That technology will be a key component of the detection and characterization strategy of exoplanets with the european Extremely Large Telescope (ELT/HARMONI, ELT/METIS) in the coming decade. He is also developping tools for interpreting exoplanet spectra. He is PI of a research project FRAME funded by the French National Research Agency aiming at detecting and characterizing forming planets. He is strongly involved in the SPHERE+ project which aims to improve our detection and characterization capabilities of exoplanets on the VLT in the coming 10 years.
Julien Milli is assistant astronomer at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics in Grenoble. His field of expertise is the detection and characterization of exoplanetary systems by direct imaging, more specifically of debris disks. His activities include instrumental work on adaptive optics and coronagraphy. In particular, he has characterised the performance of the SPHERE instrument, the VLT’s exoplanet hunter, and he is involved in the SPHERE+ upgrade project.
He is developing image processing techniques to reveal weak signals from exoplanets or disks embedded in the halo of their host star, and he is part of the operational team of the SPHERE Data Centre, in charge of reducing the data from this instrument. He interprets the observations to characterise the architecture and composition of planetary systems. He is particularly interested in extracting the scattering properties of the dust particles that make up the debris discs, to know the shape, size and composition of the basic building blocks of the planets.
Philippe Delorme is Assistant Astronomer at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble (University of Grenoble-Alpes), specialized in the imaging of exoplanets and the spectroscopy of exoplanetary atmospheres. His expertise in high-contrast data analysis is beneficial to the SPHERE DATA-CENTER, whose objective is to systematically reduce and make available all the data produced by the SPHERE instrument. In the field of the analysis of exoplanetary atmospheres, its current approach is based on advanced methods for the analysis of hyperspectral data from field integral spectrographs (currently IFS and SINFONI, but with developments aimed at the ERIS instrument on the VLT and Harmoni on the ELT).
Damien Albert is IT Engineer specialized in Data Centers for Observation Services in the Grenoble astrophysics community. In SPHERE my works covers all the aspects of the lifecycle of the scientific data, from the handling in the system, the scientific processing via HPC platform, and the user interface.
Olivier Flasseur is postdoc working on signal and image processing methods to detect and reconstruct objects from faint signals in images. The main application of my current research work is high-contrast imaging for exoplanet detection and for reconstruction of the circumstellar environment.
Benjamin Charnay is a specialist in the modeling of planetary and exoplanetary atmospheres. He has worked in the past on the climate of Titan and the early Earth, and now works mainly on 1D and 3D modeling of exoplanet atmospheres observed by direct imaging and transit in order to better understand the atmospheric physics, chemistry and dynamics. He participates in particular in the VLT-SPHERE and VLTI-GRAVITY projects and in the preparation of the ESA-Ariel mission.
Flavien Kiefer is postdoc at PSL University and work at LESIA. Expert in high and medium resolution spectroscopy, from UV to IR, his researches focus on the detection of giant exoplanets and brown dwarf companions and their characterisation (mass, atmosphere...). Concerning planet and brown dwarf detections, he uses ground-based high-precision spectrographs such as SOPHIE (OHP), HARPS (ESO/La Silla), and SPIRou (CFHT) and combine the radial velocity solution with high-precision astrometry (Hipparcos, Gaia) to derive the mass of the companions. Concerning the characterisation of exoplanet atmosphere, his works uses both IR medium-resolution spectroscopy and high-contrast high angular resolution imaging (with e.g. SINFONI at VLT) to achieve molecular mapping of young exoplanets detected by direct imaging.
Maud Langlois is a CNRS research director at CRAL (Lyon Observatory). She is interested in the direct imaging of exo-planetary systems at different stages of evolution and in the associated instrumental and data analysis techniques. Her profile combines an expertise in instrumentation with a specialization on direct imaging of exoplanets and circumstellar disks. She took the responsibility, as scientific manager, of the IRDIS instrument from the beginning of the SPHERE project to its implementation at VLT/ESO. She is also involved in the scientific exploitation of the SPHERE instrument in the framework of the large SHINE survey dedicated to the search and characterization of exoplanets in direct imaging. This involvement as co-responsible of the observations and the SHINE data reduction allowed her to contribute to the discoveries of new exoplanets and new circumstellar disks. In this context, she participates in the development of new data analysis methods (PACO, RHAPSODIE, PIC, REXPACO) which allow to improve the sensitivity of high contrast imaging to open the way to new discoveries in particular in the field of detection and characterization of extrasolar planets.
Nadège Meunier is an astronomer at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble (Université Grenoble-Alpes), specialized in solar and stellar physics, with an expertise at the interface between these disciplines and the exoplanet theme. She is interested in stellar variability due to magnetic activity and photospheric dynamics, as well as their impact on the detectability of low mass exoplanets by radial velocity and astrometry techniques. She seeks to characterize these different processes in this context, through observational approaches and simulations, and sets up blind tests to quantify detection performances, in particular for terrestrial analogues. She is the scientific manager of the SPHERE Data Center, which allows the systematic and on-demand reduction of data from the SPHERE instrument and their availability to the scientific community. She is involved in the Cobrex data center.
Vito Squicciarini is a post-doctoral fellow at LESIA, working on the search and characterization of giant planets and brown dwarfs around stars observed by imaging using state-of-the-art algorithms, in order to compare their observed and theoretical properties.
In recent years, he has worked primarily on a survey with the SPHERE instrument called BEAST, which has identified substellar companions around young B-type stars. His current efforts are part of the general quest to understand the mechanisms of substellar companion formation.
Antoine Chomez is a PhD student at LESIA and also affiliated to IPAG. His thesis focuses on the detection and characterisation of giant planets and/or brown dwarfs by coupling direct imaging with cutting-edge algorithms. He is working on a massive, homogeneous and unsupervised reduction of archive data from the SPHERE instrument with the COBREX data centre. He is also involved in the SHINE consortium.
Florian Philipot is a PhD student at LESIA, working on the search for and characterisation of giant exoplanets and brown dwarfs. He is using the coupling of radial velocity measurements obtained with various spectrographs (HARPS at ESO/La Silla, SOPHIE at OHP, HIRES at Keck, etc.) with high-contrast imaging (SPHERE and NACO at the VLT) and absolute astrometry published in the Hipparcos catalogue and Gaia DR3 to determine the orbital properties and mass of these sub-stellar companions. It is also using measurements of the proper motions of stars obtained with Hipparcos and Gaia to optimise the search for new companions.
Stéphane Bergeon is a CNRS Research Engineer at the Grenoble Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics (Université Grenoble-Alpes), specialising in software architecture and development. As a member of the Grenoble Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers, he is in charge of programming on the cobrex-dc server and maintaining COBREX services. He develops the client application and provides user support.
Sophia Stasevic is a PhD student at LESIA and associate researcher at IPAG working on the search for, and characterisation of, circumstellar disks in high-contrast imaging. Research includes the development of an Reference Differential Imaging pipeline on the COBREX data centre for reductions of SPHERE observations; optimisation of the pipeline for detection of—in particular, pole-on—disks; and the study of individual disk systems, including analysis of morphology, surface brightness, and reflectance.
Antoine Lacquement, a doctoral student at IPAG, is dedicated to the study of the dynamics and architecture of planetary systems. His research career began with an exploration of the Beta Pictoris system, where he examined the possibility of an additional planet by comparing N-body simulations with observations of the debris disk. Currently, Antoine is broadening his field of investigation by looking at even more complex systems, characterized by the presence of several stars and hierarchical orbits. In addition to his skills in numerical simulation, he is developing skills in orbital adjustment, adding an observational dimension to his work.
Florian Destriez, is a PhD student at LESIA, working on the search for and characterisation of giant exoplanets using a combination of astrometric measurements (Gaia, Hipparcos), radial velocity measurements (SOPHIE, HARPS) and high-contrast imaging (SPHERE, JWST). His thesis project aims to characterise the sub-stellar companions of low-mass stars, and in particular to construct a robust radial distribution of giant planets in order to constrain models of planetary formation.
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