Students


Since the beginning of my PhD I had the pleasure and privilege to co-supervise students at Leiden Observatory and later at the University of Birmingham . Many have successfully got PhD positions in the Netherlands and the UK; some even published the results of their thesis in peer reviewed astrophysical journals and/or presented their work at relevant conferences.


  • Rafia Sarwar | internship project on Constraints on double degenerate supernovae type Ia formation channel from LISA, academic year 2021/2022

  • Saeid Mahmoudzadeh | master thesis entitled Galactic stellar streams shining in gravitational waves, Leiden University, academic year 2020/2021

  • Michael Keim | master thesis entitled Double white dwarf in Magellanic Clouds, Leiden University, 2019/2020 academic year

Now submitted for publication to MNRAS | Exploring the Large Magellanic Cloud with LISA; see also presentation at the XIII International LISA Symposium

  • Abbie Nicholls | master thesis entitled Merger rate of Galactic white dwarf - neutron star binaries, University of Birmingham, 2019/2020 academic year

  • Samuel Higginbotham | master thesis entitled Constraining Galactic warp with gravitational waves, University of Birmingham, 2019/2020 academic year

  • Martijn Wilhelm | master thesis entitled A study of the Milky Way's bar in gravitational waves, Leiden University, 2018/2019 academic year

Now published in MNRAS | The Milky Way's bar structural properties from gravitational waves, accepted for publication in MNRAS (2020), arXiv:2003.11074

  • Raphael van Laak and Ernst Traanberg | joint bachelor thesis entitled Gravitational wave background from high-redshift supermassive black hole binaries, Leiden University, 2018/2019 academic year

  • Orlin Koop | bachelor thesis entitled Detecting extra-galactic double white dwarfs with LISA, Leiden University, 2017/2018 academic year

Now published in ApJL | Detectability of double white dwarfs in the Local Group with LISA, ApJL 866, L20 (2018), arXiv:1808.05959

  • Banafshe Shiralilou | master thesis entitled Analyzing the detection prospect of supermassive black hole seeds by LISA, Leiden University, 2017/2018 academic year

Now published in MNRAS | The hierarchical assembly of galaxies and black holes in the first billion years: predictions for the gravitational wave astronomy, MNRAS, 486, 2336 (2019), arXiv:1810.11033

  • Isabel van Vledder | master thesis entitled Finding clues of supermassive black hole formation with LISA, Leiden University, 2016/2017 academic year

Depending on my calendar for the summer, I can offer a short summer project of about 6 weeks duration on topics related to my research. Given a short duration of the project, a solid astronomy or physics background and at least some coding experience in python are required. If you are an interested student, please get in touch with me by sending me your CV, transcript of grades and a couple of sentences on why you are interested in a project. Students from all geographical and cultural backgrounds are welcome.