Our main area of research is in observational astrophysics, primarily using optical and near-infrared telescopes, both ground- and space-based, to characterise extra-solar planets (or exoplanets for short). Exoplanets are simply planets around stars other than our Sun. Thousands of these planets have been discovered over the last few decades, and the next step in our understanding of them is is to look at their atmospheres to determine their compositions and the dominant physical processes that govern their formation and evolution.
School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin
Associate Professor in Astrophysics/Principle Investigator
Prof. Kate Maguire leads a group studying explosive astrophysical phenomena such as supernovae, gravitational-wave counterparts, and exotic extra-galactic transients.
Prof. Maguire joined the academic staff at TCD in 2019 from Queen’s University Belfast, where she was a lecturer and STFC Ernest Rutherford Advanced Fellow since 2015. Prior to this she was a Marie Curie and ESO fellow at the European Southern Observatory (2013 - 2015) and a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford (2010 - 2013).
She is involved in a number of large astrophysical surveys including the leading European collaboration for follow-up of gravitational wave triggers, ENGRAVE, where she is a member of the ENGRAVE Executive Committee, the pan-European (~300 members) 4MOST instrument consortium, with a key role as chair of the Science Policy Board, and the ePESSTO+ collaboration, where she is a member of the Science Board and was chair of its Target and Alert Team from 2014 - 2019.
