Hannah L M Osborne
I'm a PhD student in the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL, expecting to graduate in summer 2025.
My research focuses on the use of radial velocity observations to discover new exoplanets and to characterise the ones we have already found.
If you're interested in research collaborations or would like to chat about outreach and exoplanets, please get in touch.
About Me
I'm currently a visiting PhD student at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) headquarters in Garching, where I'm working with Dr Louise Nielsen and Dr Michael Sterzik on analysing archival radial velocity observations.
For the first two years of my PhD I have been part of the exoplanets group at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, where I'm supervised primarily by Dr Vincent Van Eylen.
I completed my BSc in Physical Science at the University of Exeter in 2017, where I undertook a research project on the direct imaging of exoplanets supervised by Dr Sasha Hinkley. After my undergraduate degree, I trained as a secondary school science teacher and was awarded an Institute of Physics teaching scholarship. In 2019 I left teaching to undertake an MSc in Planetary Science at UCL, here my research focused on ground-based observations of transiting exoplanets, in particular of ultra-short period planets. My MSc was supervised primarily by Dr Giorgio Savini and additionally by Prof. Steve Fossey.
Research
My research uses radial velocity (RV) observations from ground-based instruments to confirm the existence of newly-detected exoplanets and to better understand the ones we have already discovered. In particular, I focus on finding the masses of small planets to help us understand more about their composition.
Most recently, I have been working on analysing archival RV data in a homogenous way to enable demographics studies of the compositions of small exoplanets.
I'm also interested in efforts to improve our understanding of the impacts of stellar activity in Extreme-Precision RV (EPRV) observations, as well as the synergy between different observations methods, and how these can provide a much richer understanding of exoplanet systems.
A full list of my publiations is available on Google Scholar.
Outreach
I have been involved in the Orbyts outreach programme for over 3 years now. Orbyts is a multi-award-winning movement that partners researchers with schools to empower school students to undertake original science research. Our goal is to address diversity issues in science and to support short-supply science teachers who have extensive time pressures. We accomplish this through a multi-term partnership that is proven to transform science inclusivity, inspire school students and teachers, and ignites scientists' leadership potential.
My role at Orbyts has grown over the years. Initially I was running a research project, then joining the management team to help with quality assurance. After that I was the Head of Teaching and Learning, responsible for the pedagogical training of researchers in the porgramme. Most recently I have been running the international side of Orbyts where we expand our reach outside of the UK.