Dr. Konstanze Zwintz

Curriculum Vitae

I obtained my master in astronomy at the University of Vienna, Austria, in 1999. The title of my master's thesis was "Hubble Deep Field Guide Star Photometry".

I defended my PhD thesis entitled "Pulsating Pre-Main Sequence Stars In Young Open Clusters" in November 2005.

I continued my career obtaining highly competitive, peer reviewed personal grants in Austria and Belgium. In 2006 I received a Hertha Firnberg postdoctoral fellowship and grant of the Austrian Science Funds (FWF) and in 2009 an APART fellowship and grant of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

In 2012 I received a Pegasus Marie Curie fellowship and grant of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), which I held at the University of Leuven until 2013. I continued to work as a senior researcher at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Leuven in the team of Prof. Conny Aerts until January 2015.

In March 2015 I started an Elise Richter fellowship and grant of the Austrian Science Funds (FWF) at the Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics of the University of Innsbruck.

My main research field is asteroseismology of pre-main sequence stars, i.e., using stellar pulsations to unravel details of the early phases of stellar evolution. Due to the relative novelty of this research area, I am pioneering this field from an observational point of view. To disseminate the results of my work, I participated in more than 50 international conferences and workshops giving invited and contributed oral presentations. Additionally, I had over 30 scientific visits, ranging from a few days up to 6 weeks each, to foreign institutes and international observatories in 12 European countries, Canada, Chile, Russia, South Africa and the US.

I was the chair and local organizer of two international conferences and co-chair of several international workshops.

To pursue my research ideas, I successfully applied for 19 dedicated observing runs with the Canadian MOST space telescope and was the PI of the asteroseismology team during two CoRoT Short Runs (SRa01 and SRa05) on the young cluster NGC 2264. I also received 21 times observing time at international facilities through dedicated peer-reviewed proposals, e.g., at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Canada-French-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO), the South African American Observatory (SAAO) or the Mc Donald Observatory (Texas, USA).

As of 2015, I am the author of 41 international peer-review publications (17 of those as first author) and 29 conference proceedings papers. I am editor of one book and act as reviewer for the journals Science, Astrophysical Journal, Astronomical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophyics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and the journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).

In 2004, I became the leader of the CoRoT PMS Thematic Team with more than 70 international members. Since 2005, I am CoRoT Co-Investigator and since 2009 member of the CoRoT Science Consortium.
I am also a member of the PLATO team (since 2007) and of the BRITE-Constellation International Advisory Science Team (since 2009).
In 2012 I became chairwoman of the BRITE-Constellation Ground Based Observations Team, which currently consists of more than 50 members and in 2014 member of the BRITE-Constellation Science Team (BEST).

From 2008 to 2012 I was the head and team leader of the Vienna Ground Station for the MOST and CoRoT satellites.

I supervised several PhD students and master students at the University of Vienna, St. Mary’s University (Halifax, Canada) and the University of Leuven. I held 13 own lectures and seminars at the University of Vienna about asteroseismology, pre-main sequence stellar evolution, stellar clusters, or space astronomy. At the University of Leuven I assisted in the courses “Asteroseismology” (2012/13 and 2014/15) and “Interstellar Medium” (2014). I was also a teacher during the Space Summer School Alpbach, Austria, in 2004.

At the University of Vienna I held the position of the responsible for gender issues at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy (SPL28) from 2010 to 2012. She was co-founder and co-coordinator of "nowaGEA, the Network of Women in Academia at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy, at the University of Vienna" from 2010 to 2012.

An important aspect in my work, is the communication to the public and mentoring young pupils and students. Therefore I participated in a professional media skills training (INTOMEDIA, Vienna, June 2009). I have given several interviews for Austrian, Belgian and Canadian print media, for Austrian and German radio and Austrian and Canadian television. I held several public lectures about satellite astronomy, and in particular the space missions MOST, CoRoT and BRITE-Constellation, and the first phases in the lives of stars.
In 2010, I participated as a mentor in the mentoring program “generation innovation mentoring” of the Austrian Ministry of Innovation and Technology (BMVIT).

I also organized several press conferences, e.g., for the inauguration of the MOST satellite ground station in Vienna, Austria, and for the presentation of the first scientific results of the CoRoT mission.

In 2007, I was voted to the “Top 30 Young Austrian Scientists” by the science magazine “Heureka” (Falter).

In my spare time, I like to play the piano, to spend time with my friends and family, to listen to classical music or to read books.

Dr. Konstanze Zwintz

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