2017 5th meeting

University of Antioquia (Medellin, Colombia)

July 17-31, 2017

Inscription form: http://bit.ly/astrotwincolo-2017-inscripcion

The AstroTwinCoLO 2017 5th Meeting is the fifth event celebrated as part of the Astronomy Twinning Program between the University of Antioquia (Colombia) and Leiden Observatory (Leiden). The meeting will be held in Medellin (Colombia) on July 17-31, 2017. Participants from Colombia and in general from all the Andean region are welcome to come and participate in the Courses that will be offered during the meeting.

Invited Lecturers

Dr. Vincent Van Eylen

Vincent Van Eylen is a Belgian astronomer researching extrasolar planets (exoplanets). He is currently the Jan Hendrik Oort Fellow at the Sterrewacht at Leiden University in The Netherlands, where he collaborates closely with the research group led by Prof. Ignas Snellen.

His research focuses on the discovery of new exoplanets and the characterization of known planets. To do so, he uses data from ground-based telescopes as well as space-based missions, such as NASA's Kepler/K2 satellite. He has led the discovery of nine new exoplanets. To help understand stars which host planets, he uses asteroseismology. His day to day work consists of programming and the analysis of large datasets using statistical techniques.

He received a PhD in Physics from Aarhus University in Denmark, where he worked at the Stellar Astrophysics Centre. His thesis advisors were Prof. Simon Albrecht and Prof. Hans Kjeldsen. During the Spring of 2015 I spent a semester as a visiting graduate student at MIT where he worked with Prof. Josh Winn. He further holds a master degree in astrophysics and a bachelor degree in physics (with a minor in mathematics) from the University of Leuven.

Dr. Arun Kannawadi

Arun Kannawadi is an astronomer & physicist working as a postdoctoral researcher in the group led by Prof. Henk Hoekstra and Prof. Konrad Kuijken at the University. His research interests are finding the nature of dark matter and dark energy, using a tool known as gravitational lensing. He is currently a member of several European-led lensing collaborations such as KiDS, Euclid and has been associated with the US-led collaborations such as WFIRST and LSST. He obtained his Master's degree and PhD in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University in August 2016, under the supervision of Prof. Rachel Mandelbaum. During his PhD, he served as a teaching assistant for 3 semesters and 1 summer. He likes teaching because it helps him to internally organize the concepts. Prior to his PhD, he obtained his Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering, with a minor in Physics, from IIT Madras in India.

Gravitational lensing is a diverse field, with many sub-fields. The students will gain a broad overview of the about the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, its uses and limitations. The course will also include a brief discussion of ongoing and future lensing surveys and various technical aspects that need to be addressed before the lensing measurement may be performed. Upon completion of course, the students will have a working knowledge of how to estimate the masses of galaxy clusters, how the shapes of galaxies measured, how to convert gravitational shears to masses.