Internal Newsletter
Prestigious Grants and Honors of PlanetS members
Despite the difficulties that the pandemic brought with it, our members have been incredibly successful in applying for prestigious grants and were honored with exceptional awards and prizes. Below follows an overview of some of the more recent examples. Paolo Sossi (ETHZ) and Brice Demory (UBE) won Starting and Consolidator Grants from the European […]
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When in doubt, aim high
Veerle Sterken had been away from a paid job in cosmic dust science for three years. Then she convinced the European Research Council (ERC) to fund her project on interstellar dust. That kick-started her “second career” in astrophysics and led to her project being welcomed into PlanetS by the board. “I will send out my […]
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Three Earth-like planets identified in two planetary systems
PlanetS astronomers associated with an international team have estimated the density of the planets in two planetary systems. Discovered by the Kepler satellite, K2-32 and K2-233 are planetary systems with 4 and 3 planets respectively. The diameters of the planets have been measured by Kepler thanks to the transit method which uses the obscuration of […]
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Science taught her to stand up for herself
Yogita Kadlag is an astrophysicist from Maharashtra, India. Since October 2019, she’s been a member of the NCCR PlanetS. From her hometown, where she is stranded due to the Corona pandemic, she spoke to us about her work, cultural differences and discrimination. “It’s raining heavily at the moment; can we try again in 20 minutes?”, […]
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Change of personnel in the communication and outreach team
In the spring of this year, Barbara Vonarburg retired. Barbara was part of the communication and outreach team of the NCCR PlanetS from the beginning. As a highly skilled science journalist with experience in both print media and Swiss television, she brought important skills to our team. During her time at PlanetS, Barbara has written […]
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Professor wanted!
The Space Research and Planetology Division within the Physics Institute of the University of Bern has an opening, as per 1 January 2022, for a full or associate professor (100%) in the field of Theoretical Planetology.
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At the interface between PlanetS and SNSF
By Leonore Lovis As finance coordinator, I am at the interface between PlanetS and SNSF for all financial aspects (from the global view on PlanetS financial situation up to details on specific expenses) as well as for matters related to the employment of PlanetS members. In addition, at the local level, this position includes the […]
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New initiatives
The NCCR PlanetS Board at its meeting on Friday November 8, 2019 has decided to attribute CHF 350’000 to two new initiatives. Holly Capelo and Monika Lendl describe what the new projects are about. TEMPus VoLA: The Timed Epstein Multi-Pressure-Vessel at Low Accelerations from Holly L. Capelo UBE, Jean-David Bodénan ETHZ/UZH, Clement Surville UZH, Jonas Guillaume Kühn UBE, […]
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Survey: PlanetS Members feel well informed
In October, the communication team conducted a survey of PlanetS members and associates on communication and outreach. With the survey, the communication team wanted to find out how well the PlanetS members are informed about the latest news and topics relevant to them, which communication channels and service offerings are used for outreach and how, […]
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A sinuous career path
In previous editions of the InsiderS, we have already portrayed astronomers and physicists who have made their careers outside academia. Here is the story of PlanetS member Pierre Bratschi who is in charge of communication and outreach at the Geneva Observatory. By Pierre Bratschi As a child, I didn’t dream of being an astronomer, I […]
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