Team

Current and former group members working on VLTI instrumentation, nulling interferometry, and exoplanet science.

Technical staff and managers

  • Wannes Verstraeten — electronics engineer (2025–present)
  • Muhammad Salman — control engineer (2022–present)
  • Kwinten Missiaen — software engineer (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 — Asgard/NOTT instrument scientist and cryogenic nulling camera (2024–present)
  • Romain Laugier — Asgard/NOTT instrument scientist and nulling performance optimization (2020–present)
  • Marc-Antoine Martinod — Asgard project manager and nulling data reduction (2022–2025)
  • Azzurra Bigioli — Asgard/NOTT instrument scientist and warm nulling fore optics (2021–2023)

PhD students

  • Thomas Mattheussen — Developing advanced nulling beam combination and data reduction techniques for mid-infrared exoplanet imaging (2025–present; co-supervision with Romain Laugier)
  • Nuno Pereira — The EnVision/VenSpec-H instrument: Future observations of the Venusian atmosphere and its links with exoplanets (2023–present; co-supervision with Séverine Robert)
  • Germain Garreau — Nulling interferometry: from exozodiacal dust with the LBTI to exoplanets with Asgard/NOTT at the VLTI (2021–2025; co-supervision with Azzurra Bigioli and Romain Laugier)
  • Danny Gasman — Towards resolving planet formation in action with JWST-MIRI: In-flight calibration of MIRI/MRS and its applications to the study of water in protoplanetary disks (2021–2025; supervised by Ioannis Argyriou)
  • Simon Verlinden — Advanced data reduction for 4-beam nulling interferometry (2021–2022; co-supervision with Romain Laugier)
  • Hélène Rousseau — Optimization of thermal background suppression through Principal Component Analysis: Application to nulling interferometric observations of warm exozodiacal dust (2020–2025; co-supervision with Steve Ertel)
  • Colin Dandumont — Exoplanet detection yield with nulling interferometry (2020–2025; co-supervision with Jérôme Loicq)

Master students

  • Robbe Elsen — Performance and data reduction of Asgard/NOTT (2026–2027; co-supervision with Thomas Mattheussen)
  • Akhila Thamaravelil Abhimanue Achary — Advanced post-processing for the detection of exoplanets around alpha Cen with ELT/METIS (2026–2027; co-supervision with Olivier Absil)
  • Joana Dimitrova — Flexible versus fixed baselines: A comparison of nulling interferometry exoplanet performance for biomarker detection (2026–2027)
  • Alen Baburaj Kuriakose — Spectral characterization of the Asgard/NOTT photonic interferometric beam combiner (2025–2026; co-supervision with Peter Chingaipe)
  • Jingyi Ping — Survival of protoplanetary disks under external photoevaporation (2025–2026; co-supervision with Paola Pinilla, UCL)
  • Loes Rutten — Characterising Earth-like exoplanets: impact of instrumental errors on the performance of space-based nulling interferometry (2024–2025)
  • Thomas Mattheussen — Optimizing light injection of Asgard/NOTT by coordinated tip-tilt motion (2024–2025; co-supervision with Germain Garreau)
  • Noel James — Warm characterization and optimization of the Asgard/NOTT HAWAII-2RG science detector (2023–2024)
  • Baoyi Zeng — Neural posterior estimation for data reduction in nulling interferometry (2023–2024; co-supervision with Marc-Antoine Martinod)
  • Luis Bala — Constraining planet formation with MARVEL: performance simulations and exoplanet yield predictions (2023–2024; co-supervision with Maddalena Reggiani)
  • Davide Dionese — 3D Modelling of the Mysterious Long Secondary Period of Evolved Stars Under a Binary Hypothesis (2023–2024; co-supervision with Leen Decin)
  • Purvaja Karthikeyan — Characterization of a photonic mid-infrared nulling beam combiner for Asgard/NOTT (2022–2023; co-supervision with Germain Garreau)
  • Philippe Neuville — GRAVITY+ towards fainter and higher contrast science: improved vibration control for the VLTI (2022–2023; co-supervision with Romain Laugier)
  • Hélène Rousseau — Deep N-band nulling interferometric imaging of α Lyrae and β Leo with the LBTI (2019–2020)
  • Colin Dandumont (2019–2020; co-supervision with Jérôme Loicq)
  • Damien Stock — Automatic oil spill detection and monitoring with supervised machine learning and SAR remote sensing (2019–2020; co-supervision with Marc Van Droogenbroeck)
  • Lucas Schifano (2018–2019; co-supervision with Jérôme Loicq)
  • Romain Falla — Performance testing and first results of the AGPM coronagraph installed on the Very Large Telescope (2016–2017; 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)