Press & Outreach
Press Releases
Below you can find press releases for research papers that I have been involved with. For the most up-to-date news on my research, I invite you to follow me on Twitter at @jaynebirkby.
Water detected on the first known hot Jupiter 51 Peg b (Feb 2017)
Length of Exoplanet Day Measured for First Time (May 2014)
Novel technique boosts hunt for water on planets around other stars (July 2013)
New Way of Probing Exoplanet Atmospheres (June 2012)
UKIRT discovers 'impossible' binary stars (July 2012)
Outreach
The Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Program for Summer students (LEAPS)
In 2013, my fellow officemate, Dr Adam Muzzin, and I set up and ran the inaugural edition of LEAPS with generous support from Leiden Observatory and ESA. LEAPS is a highly competitive summer student training program which in its first year brought 16 international students to the Leiden Observatory and ESTEC/ESA. For three months during the summer these 16 students carried out research with postdoctoral fellows of the Sterrewacht and ESTEC/ESA. Not only was the program an invaluable experience for our LEAPS students, it also helped their postdoc supervisors advance their research profile. Check out McGee, Roto, Balogh (2013) for an example of a LEAPS project written up for publication in a leading scientific journal. LEAPS is open to any student not currently enrolled in a PhD program and will run again next year. If you would like to apply, please check out our official website, where you can find lots more information. The deadline for applications is usually mid-February but be sure to check on the official website for the latest information.
Despite what you may think about the weather in the Netherlands, summer here is beautiful! You can check out the blog from one of our first LEAPS students which shows all the adventures they had during their stay in Holland.
