Photo (With Shuyu, Fall '04) Marten van Kerkwijk
Professor of Astronomy
Tel.: +1-416-946-7288
Fax.: +1-416-946-7287
E-mail: mhvk@astro
Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics
Univ. of Toronto
Office: MP 1203B
Mail: 50 Saint George Street, AB 101
Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada

CV | research | group | teaching | my page with useful links

Curriculum Vitae

I grew up in Haarlem (The Netherlands) and obtained my MSc (1988) and PhD (1993) at the University of Amsterdam. In the next years (1994-1996), I broadened my horizons as a Hubble Fellow at Caltech and, a bit briefly (1997 to mid-1998), as a postdoc at IoA. After that, I was first junior and then senior lecturer/researcher at Utrecht University. In 2003, I moved to UofT. This allowed my wife and me to live together again, and be in a wonderful department, university, city, and country.

Short CV (A4) and list of publications (A4); long CV; publications via ADS (refereed).

Research Interests

I am interested generally in compact objects, stars and binaries, their structure, formation and evolution, and their use to infer fundamental physical properties. My research is based on observations, but includes interpretation, theory and numerical modelling as required. I generally try to make progress using key observations and/or physical considerations of individual, carefully selected objects. Currently, I am trying to use neutron stars to study high-density and high field-strength physics, in conditions out of reach of terrestrial experiment (and theory, as yet), and to solve associated astronomical puzzles. I am also excited about a new project, in which we look at the origin of SN Ia explosions (hoping to confirm our suggestion that these are due to white-dwarf mergers, even for sub-Chandrasekhar mass), and, more generally, try to predict what types of transients should occur. For brief descriptions, see my long CV.

Favourite recent publications:

Collaborators, students, postdocs

My joy in science is greatly enhanced when I am collaborating with one or two others, and/or while supervising undergraduate and graduate students (I am always interested in discussing possible projects, be it for AST 425, Summer Jobs, short projects or PhD theses).

My collaborators are easily identified via ADS. Current students and postdocs are:

Former students and postdocs:

Teaching

In the 2011/12 academic year, apart from being undergraduate chair and organising the Student seminars, I am teaching: Previous courses I have taught at UofT:
Marten van Kerkwijk / mhvk@astro ---o--- last updated: 5 Feb 2012