Team
Current and former group members working on VLTI instrumentation, nulling interferometry, and exoplanet science.
People in the group at KU Leuven and collaborators, spanning instrumentation, software, and exoplanet science.
Technical staff and managers
- Wannes Verstraeten — electronics engineer (2025–present)
- Muhammad Salman — control engineer for astronomical instrumentation (2022–present)
- Kwinten Missiaen — software engineer for instrument control and data systems (2022–present)
- Johan Morren — mechanical engineer (2020–present)
- Clio Gielen — project manager (2020–present)
- Gert Raskin — instrumentation expert (2020–present)
- Alexandra Mazzoli — optical engineer (2020–present)
Postdoctoral researchers
- Peter Chingaipe — interferometry and instrument science (2024–present)
- Romain Laugier — VLTI / Asgard instrumentation and nulling (2020–present)
- Marc-Antoine Martinod — high-contrast interferometry (2022–2025)
- Azzurra Bigioli — Asgard/NOTT optical design and laboratory work (2021–2023)
PhD students
- Thomas Mattheussen — VLTI instrumentation (2025–present; co-supervision with Romain Laugier)
- Nuno Pereira — interferometric exoplanet imaging (2023–present; co-supervision with Séverine Robert)
- Germain Garreau — Asgard/NOTT warm optics and injection (2021–2025; co-supervision with Azzurra Bigioli and Romain Laugier)
- Danny Gasman — infrared instrumentation (2021–2025; supervised by Ioannis Argyriou)
- Simon Verlinden — interferometry (2021–2022; co-supervision with Romain Laugier)
- Hélène Rousseau — exozodiacal dust and interferometry (2020–2025; co-supervision with Steve Ertel)
- Colin Dandumont — nulling interferometry and space concepts (2020–2025; co-supervision with Jérôme Loicq)
Master students
- Jingyi Ping (2025–2026; co-supervision with Paola Pinilla, UCL)
- Alen Kuriakose (2025–2026; co-supervision with Peter Chingaipe)
- Thomas Mattheussen (2024–2025; co-supervision with Germain Garreau)
- Noel James (2023–2024)
- Luis Bala (2023–2024; co-supervision with Maddalena Reggiani)
- Baoyi Zheng (2023–2024; co-supervision with Marc-Antoine Martinod)
- Davide Dionese (2023–2024; co-supervision with Leen Decin)
- Philippe Neuville (2022–2023; co-supervision with Romain Laugier)
- Purvaja Karthikeyan (2022–2023; co-supervision with Germain Garreau)
- Colin Dandumont (2019–2020; co-supervision with Jérôme Loicq)
- Damien Stock (2019–2020; co-supervision with Marc Van Droogenbroeck)
- Lucas Schifano (2018–2019; co-supervision with Jérôme Loicq)
- Romain Falla (2018–2019; co-supervision with Olivier Absil)
Visiting scholars
- Prof. Mike Ireland (Australian National University; May 2025 and June 2026)
- Prof. Guillermo Martin (University of Grenoble; September 2024)
- Prof. Ji Wang (Ohio State University; June 2023 and April 2026)