Academic record
| 2020 - present: | Senior scientific and communication coordinator at the Cosmic Dawn Center, Copenhagen. |
| 2016 - 2020: | Postdoc at Institutt for teoretisk astrofysikk, Oslo. |
| 2015 - 2016: | Sysadmin / IT support at the Dark Cosmology Centre (DARK), Copenhagen. |
| 2012 - 2015: | Postdoc at DARK, Copenhagen. |
| 2010 - 2012: | Postdoc at the Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm |
| 2007 - 2010: | Ph.D. student in astrophysics, DARK, Copenhagen. Three months were spent at The Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching. |
| 2004 - 2006: | M.Sc. student in astrophysics, DARK (average grade 13/13). |
| 1999 - 2002: | B.Sc. student in physics/mathematics, Roskilde University, Roskilde. |
Research fields
See a detailed description of my research here.
Summary of fields:
- Lyman α radiative transfer
- Galaxy formation
- Galaxies at high and low redshifts
- Reionization
- Interstellar medium
- Intergalactic medium
- Emission from damped Lyα absorbers
- Compton scattering in gamma-ray bursts
Publications
- See the full list of publications here.
- See them on NASA/ADS.
- Summary (December 2023):
- Total number of authored and co-authored, refereed publications: 53
- Total number of citations: 3390
- First-author publications: 8 (648 citations)
- Second-author papers: 5
- h-index: 30
- Non-refereed publications: 12 (+ several popular science articles)
Awards & achievements
In addition to three grants for independent research as a postdoc/fellow at OKC (2 yr), DARK (3 yr), and ITA (3 yr), respectively, I was in
- 2021: Author of the most read research news article at the University of Copenhagen.
- 2019: Awarded best Danish public outreach author 2018 on Forskerzonen for popsci article "Big Bang — An Eyewitness Account". Mentioned on videnskab.dk, Danish National Research Foundation, and titan.uio.no.
- 2011: First-author of Sweden's most cited paper in astrophysics (Laursen et al. 2011). Mentioned on popularastronomi.se.
- 2009: Granted four nights of observing time at the NOT, as a Principal Investigator at a program searching for Lyα emission from damped Lyα absorbers.
Invited talks & seminars
- 2024: "Timescales in Galaxy Evolution", Roskilde University seminar, Roskilde, Denmark
- 2023: "Lyman α as a (numerical) tool to study galaxies", Congreso Estudiantil de Física y Matemática, Guatemala
- 2019: "Lyman α radiation from galaxy formation", University College London, UK
- 2015: "Lyman α — a window to the distant Universe", Institutt for teoretisk astrofysikk, Oslo, Norway
- 2012: "Interpreting Lyman α radiation from young, dusty galaxies", Roskilde University seminar, Roskilde, Denmark
- 2011: "Dust and Lyman α", Dust in Space: Consequences and Origins, Nordic Network of Astrophysics and Cosmology workshop, Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques de Cargese, Corsica
- 2010: "Interpreting the Lyman α line", Nordic Astrophysics 2010, Visby, Sweden
- 2010: "Modeling Lyα emission from high-z galaxies", Lyα workshop, AlbaNova, Stockholm, Sweden
- 2009: "Lyman α radiative transfer in the high-redshift, dusty Universe", Lund Observatory, Lund, Sweden
Teaching & supervision
- Main teacher
- Co-teacher / T.A. / guest lecturer
- Supervision
- 2019: M.Sc. student Espen Hodne (co-spv. with Sijing Shen, ITA)
- 2013: B.Sc. students Thejs Brinckmann and Mikkel Lindholmer (co-spv. with J. Fynbo, DARK
- External examination
- 2022: External examiner at Magnus Sikora Ingastad's M.Sc. defence, University of Oslo
- 2015: External examiner at Nicolás Garavito's M.Sc. defence, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Public outreach
See full summary of my outreach activities here.
- Popular science talks
- Regular talks about galaxies, cosmology, and other astronomy-related topics to high school students, astronomy associations, and the general public
- Media
- Regular interviews in radio shows, video, newspapers, online science sites, etc.
- Questions & answers
- Answering questions on StackExchange (phys/astro), the Niels Bohr Institute's outreach site, as well as in my own Q&A column.
- Popular science articles
- Online and in science magazines
- Press releases and other news stories
- About our research at DAWN
- Miscellaneous
- Tweeting about astronomy:
- Consultancy on books, exhibitions, etc.; poster and flyer design; astronomy workshops orgainization; public debates on science; astronomy art; …
Academic activities
- Scientific referee for
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Scientific Organizing Committees
- 2022: DAWN Summit 2022.
- 2021: DAWN Summit 2021.
- 2021: Cold ISM During the Epoch of Reionisation (CIDER).
- 2020: DAWN Summit 2020.
- 2014: European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS)
- Other organizational work & memberships
- 2022 - : Member of the European Astronomical Society (profile)
- 2020 -: Organizing a weekly journal club at DAWN
- 2019 - : Junior member of the International Astronomical Union (profile)
- 2012 - 2015: Organized a daily, half-hour paper discussion session at DARK.
- Observational experience
- The 2.5m Nordic Optical Telescope, La Palma (25 nights)
- The IAC 80cm, Tenerife (6 nights)
- The Danish 1.5m, La Silla (15 nights)
- The ESO 2.2m, La Silla (8 nights)
- Attended conferences, workshops, etc.
- See list here
Coding skills & software
- Fortran (for quickness)
- Python (for everything else)
- IDL (abandoned due to Python)
- Shell scripting (small tasks for facilitating everyday life)
- IRAF, ds9, and other astronomical software (basic knowledge)
- html/css/Javascript (to the extent seen on this site)
- WordPress (to the extent seen on cosmicdawn.dk)
Miscellaneous
- Languages
- Danish (mother tongue)
- English (fluently)
- Swedish/Norwegian ("it's basically Danish")
- German (moderately)
- Spanish (very basic, and only in the present and perfect tense)
- Personal interests
- Boxing (club champion 2016)
- Cycling/racing (bike messenger team world champion 2000, Philadelphia)
- Playing music
- Drinking rum
- Reading books and comic books
- Social networks