Welcome!

My name is Eva-Maria Ahrer but most people just call me Evie! My pronouns are she/her and I am a Minerva Junior Research Group Leader at the Atmospheric Physics of Exoplanets (APEx) department, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany. Prior to that I held a postdoctoral position at MPIA and completed my PhD at the University of Warwick under the supervision of Prof Peter Wheatley.

Research Interests

I’m interested in all kinds of atmospheric observations of exoplanets!

Research questions I’m interested in:

• (How) Can we reliably link planet formation and exoplanet atmospheres?
• Can we determine morning and evening sides of hot Jupiters, characterising their 2D and 3D structures?
• What kind of diversity exists for sub-Neptune atmospheres? And how is it linked to their formation, migration and evolution (e.g., regarding the radius gap or Neptune desert)?

My expertise:

• Data reduction and analysis of exoplanets and their atmospheres; I’m actively involved in developing reduction tools, e.g., with the Eureka! and Tiberius pipelines.
• With a focus on JWST! but also ground-based telescopes such as the NTT at La Silla, or the Calar Alto 2.2m.
• Atmospheric modelling and characterisation, mainly using petitRADTRANS.

Beyond Research

I’m very involved in outreach and ED&I activities. One outreach activity very close to my heart is the International Astronomical Youth Camp (IAYC), a three-week summer camp for 16-24 year olds, where I got to know a lot of amazing people that helped me figure out this academic life. Now I got to be on the organising team and inspire young minds! I’m also keen on giving talks at schools, astronomy societies, etc. (either English or German) so please reach out if interested!