Emily Roberts (she/her)
Introduction and Research
I am a second year PhD student in the white dwarf group in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Warwick. I am supervised by Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay. I will be working on the Gaia satellite's 100pc sample of white dwarfs and using it to learn bout the Star Formation History of the local neighbourhood.
I completed my MPhys Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh working with Nick Rowell for two years on the kinematics of white dwarfs as a proxy for age, and simulations of the 100pc Gaia sample to recover the Star Formation History of the local neighbourhood (which I am now continuing!)
The SFH is currently somewhat disputed, with some researching indicating a constant rate, and some research indicating a rate with two distinct peaks. By analysing the data from Gaia, expanding my simulations to account for more complex features such as binary white dwarfs and complex stellar atmospheres, I hope to improve our understanding of the history of the Milky Way.
Publications
First Author:
- E. K. Roberts, P.-E. Tremblay et al. "Comparison of methods used to derive the Galactic star formation history from white dwarf samples" in MNRAS. arXiv: 2502.09579
Teaching
- Lab demonstrator for PX428: Physics Laboratory (23/24, 24/25 academic years)
- Lab demonstrator for PX442: Laboratory for Mathematics & Physics Students (23/24, 24/25 academic years)
Outreach and Engagement
- Chair of the Physics Postgraduate Committee (current role)
- ED&I Rep for Physics Postgraduate Committee (current role)
- Athena Swan Rep for Physics Postgraduate Committee (current role)
- Student Lead for the Astronomy and Astrophysics Equitea Committee (current role)
- Volunteer at the Warwick Planetarium (2023-2024)
Talks and Conferences
- Conference poster: National Astronomy Meeting, Durham, UK, July 2025
- Conference talk: European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting, Cork, Ireland June 2025
- Conference panel session: 'A day in the life of a PhD student', Conference for Undergraduate Women and Non-Binary Physicists UK&Ireland, University of Warwick, UK, 09/04/2025
- Conference talk: 'Equity and Inclusivity Practises in Academia', Conference for Undergraduate Women and Non-Binary Physicists UK&Ireland, University of Warwick, 08/04/2025
- Conference talk: 'Comparison of methods for determining the star formation history using Gaia WD samples', EuroWD: European Workshop on White Dwarfs, Barcelona, Spain, 8th August 2024
Other Experience
- Undergraduate Representative for Astrophysics at University of Edinburgh (2020-2023)
