Curriculum Vitae
BURCU GÜNAY, Ph.D.
burcu.gunay@ege.edu.tr
burcu.gunay@armagh.ac.uk
https://sites.google.com/view/burcugunay
+90 5384124837
Research Interest
Observational Astronomy: Spectroscopic and photometric observations of interstellar dust and ice.
Laboratory Astrophysics: Spectroscopic analysis of interstellar dust analogues.
Computational Chemistry: Computational analysis of interstellar dust and ice.
Research Experience
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium / NI - UK
Visiting Researcher: Observational studies of the chemistry of dust and ice in the ISM
February 2024 – current.
ICE / CSIC / Barcelona - Spain
ERC Advance Project (Pebbles): Spectroscopic signatures of grain growth and pebbles formation
01 September – 25 November 2024.
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) / Johns Hopkins University / MD - USA
Photometric method for mapping interstellar dust and ice with JWST
15 April 2022 – 01 September 2023.
TUBITAK – Project No: 117F497 - Ege University / Izmir – Türkiye
Spectroscopic chemical abundance analysis of selected Stars
May 2018 - August 2019.
Armagh Observatory and Planetarium / NI - UK
Data analysis (UKIRT) for photometric mapping of carbonaceous dust in the ISM
March 2018 – May 2018.
University of New South Wales – School of Chemistry / Sydney – Australia
Laboratory analogue production and spectroscopic analysis (IR – NMR – UV) of carbonaceous dust
August 2016 – July 2017.
University of New South Wales – School of Physics / Sydney – Australia
Data reduction (UKIRT) and analysis for photometric mapping of carbonaceous dust in the ISM
November 2015 – February 2016.
Education
PhD in Astrophysics
2012 February – January 2019.
Ege University, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Science / Astronomy and Space Sciences
Advisors: Prof. Dr. Melike Afşar (Prof. Dr. Michael G. Burton, Prof. Dr. Timothy W. Schmidt)
MSc in Astronomy
2009 February – October 2011.
Ege University, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Science / Astronomy and Space Sciences
Advisor: Prof. Dr. Zeynel Tunca
BSc in Chemistry
October 1999 – June 2004.
Ege University, Faculty of Science - Chemistry Department
Advisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Sedat Çelebi
Awards
Visiting Grant / TÜBİTAK
Space Telescope Science Institute (USA) / 2022 – 2023 (12 months).
Visiting Graduate Research Associate
UNSW (Australia) / 2020 – 2021 (12 months).
PhD Student Scholarship / TÜBİTAK
UNSW (Australia) / 2016 – 2017 (12 months).
Practicum Research Student Scholarship
UNSW (Australia) / 2016 - 2017 / (12 months).
Research Fellowship
UNSW (Australia) / November 2015 - February 2016.
Telescope Time
NASA Swift UVOT / Cycle 21, ID. \#2124203 (CoI).
James Webb Space Telescope / Project: Cycle 4 GO – 7715 (CoI).
James Webb Space Telescope / Project: Cycle 3 GO – 5168 (CoI).
James Webb Space Telescope / Project: Cycle 3 GO – 5114 (CoI).
Hubble Space Telescope / Project: Cycle 31 – 17516 (CoI).
James Webb Space Telescope / Project: Cycle 2 GO – 3429 (CoI).
James Webb Space Telescope / Project: Cycle 2 GTO – 4551 (CoI).
UKIRT / Project: U/15B/D01 - September 2015 (PI).
UKIRT / Project: U/16B/D01 - September 2016 (PI).
Oral Presentations
Observational and Laboratory Studies of Carbonaceous Dust / Pebbles Workshop
IRAP – Toulouse / 16 – 17 October 2024.
Observational and Experimental Research in Astrochemistry
Interdisciplinary Astronomy - 100. Anniversary (Invited Speaker)
Ege University – Izmir / 23 October 2023.
From the Interstellar Medium to Meteorites: Aliphatic Hydrocarbons / Meteorite Workshop
Ankara University – Ankara / 12 - 13 June 2023.
Quantifying The Aliphatic Hydrocarbon Content of Interstellar Dust
IAU Symposia: Laboratory Astrophysics: from Observations to Interpretation
Cambridge / 14-19 April 2019.
Observational Studies on Carbonaceous Interstellar Dust
Ege University - Izmir / June 2019.
Laboratory Studies on Carbonaceous Interstellar Dust
Ege University – Izmir / April 2019.
Distribution of Carbonaceous Dust Towards Galactic Centre
21. National Astronomy Congress
Erciyes University – Kayseri / 03 – 07 September 2018.
Aliphatic Hydrocarbon Content of The Interstellar Dust
RACI Physical Chemistry Student Conference 25th
Sydney / 25 - 27 September 2016.
Mapping Solid Carbon Across the Galaxy - School of Chemistry
UNSW – Sydney / 14 July 2016.
Workshops
Disks and Planetary Formation in the JWST and ELT Era / The Evry Schatzman School
30 September – 04 October 2024 / Roscoff – France.
Webb Investigations of Carbon, Silicates, and Ices Workshop II
19 - 23 February 2024 / STScI - Baltimore Maryland – USA.
Poster Presentations
Mapping the interstellar dust and ice with JWST
Cosmic Dust Meeting – Gothenburg / 25 – 29 September 2023.
Mapping the Interstellar Ice and Dust Towards to Galactic Centre
American Astronomical Society Meeting - Seattle, USA / 08 – 12 January 2023.
Mapping Solid Carbon Across the Galaxy
RACI Centenary Congress Melbourne / 23 - 28 July 2017.
Public Talks
Organic Molecules in Space EU Observatory ARC / 18 May 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNSl99ihj8 / 11 May 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChxMsb3li6g (03:02:30) / 08 December 2021.
Reviewing Activities
Nature Astronomy
American Astronomical Society Journals
Computer Skills / Laboratory Methods
Operating Systems: OS X – Windows– Linux.
Programming Languages: Python, MATLAB, LaTeX.
Software: Gaussian / Gauss View, Origin, STARLINK, IRAF.
Spectroscopic Methods: IR Spectroscopy, UV and Visible Spectroscopy.
Catalogs: VizieR Online Data Catalog: Aliphatic hydrocarbon within interstellar dust (Gunay+, 2020) (2023yCat..74931109G).
PhD Thesis: Investigation of Interstellar Carbonaceous Dust Distribution in the Direction of Galactic Centre (2018PhDT.......171G).