• Dr. Tuomas Kangas
  • Finnish Centre for Astrophysics with ESO, FI-20014 University of Turku, Finland
  • ORCID: 0000-0002-5477-0217
  • tjakan@utu.fi

Education

Employment

  • 09/2022– FINCA Fellow, University of Turku, Finland (current position)
  • 08/2020–08/2022 Postdoctoral Researcher, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 06/2017–07/2020 Postdoctoral Fellow, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA
  • 01/2013–07/2014 Student Support Astronomer, Nordic Optical Telescope, La Palma, Spain
  • 06/2010–12/2012 Research Assistant, University of Turku, Finland (part-time)

Publications

Since 2013, I have 10 refereed first-author publications (2 in ApJ, 3 in A&A and 5 in MNRAS). In total I have authored 51 refereed publications including five in the high-impact journals Science, Nature and Nature Astronomy. These publications have a total of 6559 citations as of Aug 6 2024, with an h-index of 27. In addition, I have authored over 100 circulars, telegrams and other non-refereed astronomy notices.

Supervision experience

  • 2023 (on-going): MSc thesis (primary supervisor), astronomy, University of Turku
  • 2018: MSc thesis (co-supervisor), astronomy, University of Turku

Teaching experience

  • 2022, 2023: Observational Techniques Using the NOT (7 ECTS) MSc level, astronomy; lectures, supervision of observations and group projects
  • 2023: Spectroscopic Diagnostics in Astrophysics, (8 ECTS) MSc level, astronomy; lecture
  • 2021, 2022: Introductory Astronomy for Engineers, (7.5 ECTS) BSc level, astronomy; lectures
  • 2014, 2016: Methods of Observational Astrophysics I (6 ECTS) MSc level, astronomy; lectures, supervision of observations and group projects
  • 2016: Methods of Observational Astrophysics II (5 ECTS) MSc level, astronomy; group supervision
  • 2016: Project Work (3 ECTS) BSc level, physics; supervision of a group project
  • 2014: Stellar Structure and Evolution (8 ECTS) MSc level, astronomy; exercise supervision and grading

Other experience and contributions

  • Observing experience:
    • ~60 nights at the Nordic Optical Telescope, La Palma, Spain
    • 10 nights at the New Technology Telescope, La Silla, Chile
    • Service-mode observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Gemini Observatory
  • Peer review of several articles for Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
  • Observing time allocation experience:
    • Hubble Space Telescope: Time Allocation Committee, external panelist (Cycles 30 and 31)
    • Hubble Space Telescope: Time Allocation Committee, Panel Support Scientist (Cycles 27 and 28)
    • European Southern Observatory: Observing Programmes Committee, panelist (P112, P113, P114)
    • Gemini Observatory and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array: distributed peer review
  • Scientific Organizing Committee membership in the Space Telescope Science Institute Spring Symposium 2019: “Deaths and Afterlives of Stars”
  • Contributed talks and/or posters in 17 international conferences between 2012 and 2024
  • 2 invited seminar talks outside my place of employment
  • Skills in data reduction of optical and infrared data; statistical and numerical methods and light-curve modelling; interpretation of photometric and spectroscopic data; programming in Fortran, Python and C

Successful observing time proposals as primary investigator

  • European Southern Observatory, P114 (2024): What powers the most luminous hydrogen-rich supernovae?
  • Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cycle 20 (2019): GRB150314A: the first GRB hosted by an AGN or New GRB Physics?
  • Gemini Observatory, Semester 2018A: Completing the z < 0.5 LGRB Host Metallicity Sample
  • Nordic Optical Telescope, Periods 51 and 52 (2015-2016): Environments of core-collapse supernovae in interacting galaxies
  • Nordic Optical Telescope, Period 46 (2012-2013): The population and progenitors of core-collapse SNe in starburst galaxies

Memberships in international collaborations

  • 2022– NOT Unbiased Transient Survey 2 (NUTS2), European collaboration for transient follow-up using the Nordic Optical Telescope
  • 2019– ENGRAVE, large collaboration for follow-up of electromagnetic transients linked to gravitational-wave events
  • 2020–2023 Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), large collaboration for transient discovery, classification and follow-up
  • 2016–2017 NOT Unbiased Transient Survey (NUTS), the previous iteration of NUTS2
  • 2013–2017 Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO), collaboration for transient classification and follow-up using the New Technology Telescope at the European Southern Observatory