Principal Investigators
Jason Hessels
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Transient Astrophysics, McGill University / Full Professor, University of Amsterdam / Staff Scientist, ASTRON
Exploring fast radio transient phase space.
Benito Marcote
Permanent Support Scientist, JIVE
Studies all kind of transient sources with low-frequency connected radio interferometers and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI).
Ziggy Pleunis
Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam / Visiting Scientist, ASTRON
Using fast radio transients as precise astrophysical tools.
Associated Staff
Cees Bassa
Staff Scientist, ASTRON
Working with the LOFAR radio telescope and volunteer at the Dwingeloo radio telescope.
Zsolt Paragi
Head of User Suport Group, JIVE
Chair of the program comittee of the European VLBI Network and head of the EVN User Support.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Reshma Anna-Thomas
Postdoctoral Researcher, ASTRON
Searching for fast radio transients in low-frequency data. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Amanda Cook
Postdoctoral Researcher, McGill University
Using fast radio bursts as statistical probes of diffuse ionized media and exploring the implications for galaxy formation. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Dante Hewitt
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Amsterdam
Localizing fast radio bursts at high angular resolution with the EVN and CHIME/FRB Outriggers and understanding the burst emission through observations with the Nancay telescope. Advised by Ziggy Pleunis.
Inés Pastor-Marazuela
Postdoctoral Researcher, ASTRON and University of Amsterdam
Fast radio transient searches, localisation and characterisation using multiple radio telescopes. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Lauren Rhodes
Trottier Space Institute Post-doctoral Research Fellow, McGill University
Uses radio telescopes to study relativistic jets launched by black holes of all masses. Advised by Daryl Haggard and Jason Hessels.
PhD Candidates
Rachel Darlinger
PhD Candidate, McGill University
CHIME/FRB Outriggers. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Max Fine
PhD Candidate, McGill University
Advised by Vicky Kaspi and Jason Hessels.
Akshatha Gopinath
PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam
Studying the burst properties of fast radio bursts at the lowest frequencies with LOFAR. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Jeff Huang
PhD Candidate, McGill University
Advised by Jason Hessels.
Nina Kaplina
PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam
CHIME/FRB Outriggers and probing the interstellar medium with fast radio bursts. Advised by Ziggy Pleunis.
Affan Khadir
PhD Candidate, McGill University
Using fast radio bursts as probes of the density and magnetic field of astrophysical plasma in the cosmic web. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Dirk Kuiper
PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam
Realtime survey for fast radio transients with LOFAR 2.0. Advised by Jason Hessels, Ziggy Pleunis and Benito Marcote.
Alexandra Moroianu
PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam
Milliarcsecond localization of repeating fast radio burst sources with PRECISE. Advised by Jason Hessels, Ziggy Pleunis and Benito Marcote.
Nicole Mulyk
PhD Candidate, McGill University
Advised by Jason Hessels and Vicky Kaspi.
Omar Ould-Boukattine
PhD Candidate, ASTRON and University of Amsterdam
High-cadence monitoring of repeating fast radio bursts with small EVN dishes (HyperFlash). Advised by Jason Hessels.
Sachin Pradeep E T
PhD Candidate, McGill University
Fast radio bursts, slow transients, scattering and scintillation. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Sylvain Ranguin
PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam
Realtime survey for fast radio transients with LOFAR 2.0. Advised by Jason Hessels, Ziggy Pleunis and Benito Marcote.
Vishwangi Shah
PhD Candidate, McGill University
Studying the local environments and energetics of FRBs using CHIME/FRB and its Outriggers. Advised by Jason Hessels and Vicky Kaspi.
Mark Snelders
PhD Candidate, ASTRON and University of Amsterdam
Finding and characterizing fast radio bursts at the highest possible time resolution. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Master & Bachelor Students
Ny Ando
University of Amsterdam
Developing a pipeline to look for single pulses from the Nançay Radio Telescope
Kyle McGregor
MSc Student, McGill University
Characterizing fast radio burst survey selection effects. Advised by Vicky Kaspi and Jason Hessels.
Wenke Xia
MSc Student, McGill University
Searching for new pulsars with CHAMPSS and detecting pulsar glitches through timing. Advised by Vicky Kaspi and Jason Hessels.
Affiliated Members
Shivani Bhandari
ASTRON / JIVE
Former postdoc and NWO Veni Fellow. Studies Fast Radio Bursts with the EVN and LOFAR.
Pragya Chawla
ASTRON
Former postdoc working on searches for fast radio bursts at low radio frequencies.
Franz Kirsten
Senior Research Engineer, Chalmers University of Technology
Leading the PRECISE project on follow up of repeating fast radio burst sources with EVN dishes.
Ninisha Manaswini
PhD Student, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
Former ASPIRE student at UvA, working on searches for CHIME-detected FRBs in LOFAR-tied array all-sky survey and on polarimetry of bursts detected by the Effelsberg telescope.
Kenzie Nimmo
Kavli Fellow, MIT
Former UvA PhD student, on the study of fast radio bursts at the highest angular and temporal resolution.
Lidia Regassa
MSc Student, Space Science and Geospatial Institute, Ethiopia
Former ASPIRE student at UvA (2025), working on searches for transients in the image-plane with LOFAR. Program Manager at the Ethiopian Space Science Society and National Astronomy Education Coordinator under the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education and working on MSc thesis about AGN characterization using multi-wavelength SED fitting.
Dany Vohl
Affiliated Scientific Researcher, ASTRON
Former postdoc discovering long-term transient sources at low radio frequencies with LOFAR.
Former Members
Syarief Fariz
MSc Student, University of Amsterdam
Former master student working on mitigating radio frequency interference in fast radio burst data with machine learning. Advised by Jason Hessels, Daniela Huppenkothen and Gabriella Contardo.
Mariska Hoogkamer
MSc Student, University of Amsterdam
Former master student at UvA/API advised by Jason Hessels, working on characterising fluctuations in FRB temporal profiles and comparing with magnetar X-ray bursts. Now a PhD Student at the University of Amsterdam.
David Konijn
MSc Student, University of Amsterdam
Searching for FRBs towards nearby starburst galaxies. Now a PhD student at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and ASTRON.
Teresa Matamoro
MSc Student, University of Amsterdam
Former UvA student, now a PhD student at the University of Bristol. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Ruben van Ruiten
Research Associate, University of Amsterdam
Former research associate searching for links between energetic millisecond pulsars and repeating fast radio bursts. Advised by Jason Hessels.
Hugo Veldhuis
MSc Student, University of Amsterdam
Former master student working on burst morphological clustering of FRBs from CHIME/FRB Catalog 1 and the Arecibo observations of FRB 20121102A. Advised by Dany Vohl Jason Hessels.