Yaël Nazé#

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE#

Diplomas:

• Engineering degree : Mons, FPMs, June 1999
• PhD in Astrophysics : Liège, ULg, March 2004
  

Position:

• Research associate FRS-FNRS since October 2009
• “Maître de conférences” at the University of Liège since October 2007
  

Research :

• Study of massive stars and their surroundings through multiwavelength observations
• 49 refereed publications (26 as first author, 23 as co-author)
• 33 posters/proceedings
• 2 invited reviews
• Numerous collaborations and stays abroad (from one week to a year; in USA, Mexico, UK, Italy, Canada, Burundi, Switzerland, and Chile)
• Participation to ESO and ESA panels and to meetings' organizing committees
  

Other activities:

• Teaching – general astronomy courses (Bujumbura, Chicago, Liège, Luxembourg, Poitiers, Urbana-Champaign) and advanced astronomy courses (Bujumbura, Liège, Padova, Urbana-Champaign)
• Popularization of science – 5 popular books, ~70 popular articles (Belgium, France, USA) and monthly chronicle in “Athéna”; >130 popular talks (Belgium, Burundi, France, Iran, Luxembourg, Mexico, USA) ; workshops for kids and teachers, astro exhibitions/events, “astro-news” for media
  

Awards: 3 science prizes and 8 popularization prizes

Website: http://www.astro.ulg.ac.be/~naze

DETAILS OF RESEARCH#

Massive stars are really masters among the stars: with all-time records in temperature, mass and brightness, they truly dominates their host galaxies. Their intense UV radiation not only generate beautiful nebulae, called HII regions, but is also able to drive the ejection of mass - the so- called stellar winds, that are up to ten billion times stronger than our solar wind. At the end of their lives, these stars explode as supernovae or Gamma-Ray Bursts. In galaxies, massive stars are thus the main sources of ionizing radiation, chemical enrichment, and mechanical input.

However, despite their importance, such stars remain poorly known because they are both rare and short-lived. My research aims at a better understanding of these objects, using multiwavelength observations gathered from ground-based as well as space-based facilities (HST, XMM, Herschel, VLT,...). My studies focus on massive binaries, which are the best tools to constrain the physical parameters, and on peculiar massive stars, which either are in a short but crucial evolutionary stage or have an abnormal physical property.

KEY PUBLICATION REFERENCES #

• 'X-ray spectroscopy of stars', Güdel M. (for cool stars) and Nazé Y. (for hot stars), Astronomy & Astrophysics Review, 17, 309-408 (2009)
• 'Towards an understanding of the Of?p star HD191612: Phase-resolved multiwavelength observations', Nazé Y., Rauw G., Pollock A.M.T., Walborn N.R., Howarth I.D., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 375, 145-153 (2007)