The Life Scientific

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The Life Scientific: Conny Aerts on star vibrations and following your dreams

Conny Aerts on star vibrations and following your dreams

BBC Radio 4 - The Life Scientific, Conny Aerts on star vibrations and following your dreams

Asteroseismologist Conny Aerts expalins what stellar oscillations can teach us about space

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to asteroseismologist Conny Aerts about vibrations in stars, and how going through life as a self-described 'outlier' has influenced her career.

Many of us have heard of seismology, the study of earthquakes; but what about asteroseismology, focusing on vibrations in stars?

Conny Aerts is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Leuven in Belgium - and a champion of this information-rich field of celestial research. Her work has broken new ground in helping to improve our understanding of stars and their structures.

It hasn’t been an easy path: Conny describes herself as always being “something of an outlier” and she had to fight to follow her dream of working in astronomy. 
But that determination has paid off - today, Conny is involved in numerous interstellar studies collecting data from thousands of stars, and taking asteroseismology to a whole new level. 

In an epsiode recorded at the 2024 Cheltenham Science Festival, Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to the pioneering Belgian astrophysicist about her lifelong passion for stars, supporting the next generation of scientists, and her determination to tread her own path. 

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Lucy Taylor

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