Conny Aerts - Asteroseismology

Conny's research covers stellar astrophysics, including stellar structure & evolution and variable stars. She is a pioneer of asteroseismology, which received a major boost thanks to the CoRoT (2006+), Kepler (2009+), and TESS (2018+) space missions. Prior to high-precision space photometry, Conny developed rigorous mathematical methods to detect and identify non-radial stellar oscillations in high-resolution time-series spectroscopy. Her team also designed and applied statistical classification methods in a machine-learning context, discoving numerous gravity-mode pulsators in space photometry. As Chair in Asteroseismology at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Conny introduced herself into the topic of subdwarf stars, their binarity and pulsations, with current focus on development and exploitation of BlackGEM in tandem with gravitational wave studies.

Conny gave a lecture  on thursday evening (11/12/2025) as part of an  Invited theatre lecture performance for Science Cafe De Kempen: “Asteroseismologie: ´ daar zit muziek in!” (in Dutch), Organised in Tabloo, Dessel, Belgium.