Conny Aerts facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Conny Clara Aerts
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Aerts presenting in 2023
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| Born | 26 January 1966 |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Education | University of Antwerp |
| Alma mater | KU Leuven |
| Awards | Francqui Prize Kavli Prize Crafoord Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | KU Leuven Radboud University |
Conny Clara Aerts, born on January 26, 1966, is a Belgian professor who studies space. She is an expert in a field called asteroseismology. This is like studying "starquakes" to learn what's happening deep inside stars.
Professor Aerts works at two universities: KU Leuven in Belgium and Radboud University in the Netherlands. She leads a special group there that focuses on asteroseismology. She has won several important awards for her work. In 2012, she was the first woman to receive the Francqui Prize in Science & Technology. Later, in 2022, she became the third woman to win the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. In 2024, she also received the Crafoord Prize.
About Conny Aerts
Conny Aerts was born in a town called Brasschaat in Belgium. She studied Mathematics at the University of Antwerp. She also took part in the International Astronomical Youth Camp for two years.
After her studies, she earned her PhD in 1993 from KU Leuven. She then spent some time doing research at the University of Delaware in the United States. From 1993 to 2001, she was a research fellow. Later, she became a lecturer at KU Leuven. She was promoted to associate professor in 2004 and then to full professor in 2007.
What She Researches
Professor Aerts's main research involves using the tiny movements or "oscillations" of stars. These oscillations are like sound waves that travel through a star. By studying them, she can figure out how fast different parts of a star are spinning inside.
She collects data about these star movements from powerful telescopes. Some are on Earth, and others are in space. For example, she used information from the CoRoT satellite and the NASA Kepler satellite. Currently, she is a lead scientist for Belgium on the PLATO mission, which is another space telescope project.
Conny Aerts also developed special computer methods to analyze this complex data. This helps her understand the structure of stars. Her work helps improve our ideas about how stars change and grow over time, which is called stellar evolution theory. Thanks to her techniques, she discovered that giant stars don't spin like one solid object. Instead, different parts spin at different speeds.
Her methods can also tell us the age of stars very accurately. This is a big help for astronomers. She has received important grants from the European Research Council for her projects, including PROSPERITY and MAMSIE.
Sharing Science
Conny Aerts is also involved in sharing science with others. She is the Vice-Dean of Communication & Outreach at the Faculty of Science at KU Leuven. This means she helps explain scientific discoveries to the public.
She strongly believes that more girls and women should be involved in science. She is a member of a group called the International Astronomical Union Women in Astronomy Working Group. This group works to encourage more women to become astronomers.
Awards and Honors
Conny Aerts has received many awards and honors for her important work:
- In 2010, she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
- In 2011, she became a Member of the Royal Flemish Academy for Sciences and Arts.
- In 2012, she won the Francqui prize, a very important award in Belgium.
- In 2016, she was given the title of Commander of the Order of Leopold.
- In 2017, she gave a special lecture at Oxford University called "Starquakes expose stellar heartbeats."
- In 2018, she received the ESA Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture for her work in asteroseismology.
- In 2019, an asteroid was named in her honor: 413033 Aerts.
- In 2020, she won the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) Excellence Prize in Exact Sciences.
- In 2022, she was awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics.
- In 2024, she received the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy.
