CV

Information below partially updated: 10 Oct 2023

Professional Appointments:

Associate Professor in Astrophysics
University of Bristol, School of Physics

(Aug 2023 – present; Senior Lecturer Feb 2023 – Aug 2023; Lecturer Feb 2020 – Feb 2023)

Giacconi Fellow
Space Telescope Science Institute, Science Mission Office
(Nov 2017 – Jan 2020)

Senior Research Fellow.
University of Exeter, Astrophysics Group
(July 2017 – Nov 2017)

NASA Postdoctoral Fellow
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Planetary Systems Lab
(Aug 2015 – May 2017)

Education:

PhD Physics
University of Exeter
(2011 – 2015)
Dissertation title: “Cloudy with a chance of water:Investigating hot Jupiter exoplanet atmospheres through observation and analysis”

MPhys Physics with Planetary and Space Physics
University of Wales: Aberystwyth
(2007 – 2011)
Dissertation title: “Relating geomagnetic substorm observations in the upper polar atmosphere to large scale solar CME events”

Masters program taken as part of 4-year MPhys
University Center in Svalbard (UNIS) 
(2011)
Courses undertaken: Radar diagnostics of space plasma; The upper Polar atmosphere.

Selected Honours and Awards:

2022: Fellow of Advanced HE: accreditation for teaching in higher education

2020: STScI Achievement Award: successful deployment of ExoCTK

2017: Geological Society of Washington’s Bradley award for Best Paper

2016: NASA Robert H. Goddard Honor Award – individual recognition award for scientific achievement

2016: Winner of the NASA@Work public engagement video competition

2015: XMedia Award Winner of Best Show for The Science Hour on XpressionFM

2015: XMedia Award Winner of Best Innovation for Top Female Scientists Card Game by The Science Hour on XpressionFM

2014: National grand prize winner of the “3 Minute Wonder” competition by the Institute of Physics.

2013: South West Regional winner of the “3 Minute Wonder” competition by the Institute of Physics.

2013: BBC Academy Expert Women – selected in the top 3% of all national candidates.

Research Grants/Awards:

2023: ERC Starting Grant: Administered by UKRI under UK Government Horizon Europe Funding. £1.5M for 5 years

2020: STFC Consolidated Grant: Project PI. £410k for 3yr PDRA effort + 15% PI FTE

2017: Giacconi Prize Fellowship: $302k 3yr postdoctoral fellowship

2015: NASA Postdoctoral Position: $171k 2yr postdoctoral fellowship

2011: STFC PhD Scholarship: University of Exeter

2010: RAS Summer Internship program: £1k 10 weeks

Publications:

For list of academic publications please see the publications tab, which contains a link to the full NASA/ADS list.

Press associated releases can be found in the CV/press release tab

Popular Science Books:

Bang!! The Complete History of the Universe, Brian May, Patrick Moore, Chris Lintott, Hannah Wakeford; Wellbeck Publishing, 2021

Observing Time/Grants:

Hubble PI

1. GO 17405 – Batalha, Natasha & Wakeford, Hannah, ….
2. GO 17183 – Wakeford, Hannah, Alderson, Lili, Batalha, Natasha, Grant, David, Lewis, Nikole, Lopez-Morales, Mercedes, MacDonald, Ryan, Marley, Mark, Moran, Sarah E. & Ohno, Kazumasa (2022) Hubble Ultraviolet-optical Survey of Transiting Legacy Exoplanets (HUSTLE) treasury program , HST Proposal, Cycle 30, 122 orbits, PI
3. GO 14918 – Wakeford, Hannah, Batalha, Natasha, Clampin, Mark, Kataria, Tiffany, Lewis, Nikole, & Sing, David K. (2017), Definitive measurement of WASP-17b’s water abundance in preparation for JWST , HST Proposal, Cycle 24, 10 orbits, PI

JWST PI & Science PI

1. GO-2667 –  Wakeford, Hannah, Alderson, Lili, Batalha, Natasha, Gao, Peter, Kataria, Tiffany, Lewis, Nikole, Marley, Mark S., Moran, Sarah E., Powell, Diana, Sing, David K., Stevenson, Kevin, & Valenti, Jeff A. (2021), Good vibrations: Directly measuring Exoplanet aerosol compositions with MIRI spectroscopy, JWST Proposal. Cycle 1, 9.4 hours, PI
2. GTO-1353 – Lewis, Nikole, Clampin, Mark, Mountain, Matthew, Seager, Sarah, Stevenson, Kevin B., Valenti, Jeff, Batalha, Natasha, Espinoza, Néstor, Ranjan, Sukrit, & Wakeford, Hannah (2005-2017), Transit and Eclipse Spectroscopy of a Hot Jupiter, JWST Proposal, Cycle 0 Guaranteed Time Observations, 74.9 hours,  Subject level lead and Science-PI

Hubble & JWST Co-I

Lots… Hannah update me.

Supervision:

2023 – 2027              Charlotte Fairman, PhD student, School of Physics grant, University of Bristol, UK

2023 – 2027              Daniel Valentine, PhD student, STFC/School of Physics, University of Bristol, UK

2022 – 2023              Charlotte Fairman, MSc by Research student, University of Bristol, UK

2022 – 2026              Matt Lodge, PhD student, School of Physics grant, University of Bristol, UK

2021 – 2024              David Grant, PDRA, STFC Consolidated Grant, University of Bristol, UK

2020 – 2024              Lili Alderson, PhD student, STFC/School of Physics grant, University of Bristol, UK

2018 – 2020              Iva Laginja, Research Instrument Analyst, 0.1 FTE for 3 years as part of GO-14918, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA

2018 – 2020.             Jules Fowler, Research Instrument Analyst, 0.05 FTE as part of GO-15304 for 2 years, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA

Teaching Activities:

2021 – 2023     Research Project Supervisor – 4^th year MPhys (60 credits), University of Bristol, UK

2021 – 2023     Project Supervisor – 3^rd year MSci Labs (30 credits), University of Bristol, UK

2020 –             Unit Director – 3^rd year Environmental Physics (20 credit), University of Bristol, UK

2020 – 2023     Lecturer – 1^st year Stars and Planets (20 credit), University of Bristol, UK

2018 – 2019     Guest lecturer – non-majors, Planets, Life & the Universe, Johns Hopkins University, USA

2017 – 2018     Guest Expert (20 lectures) – Astronomy for the non-Astronomer course, STScI, USA

2013 – 2015     Guest Expert – post-graduate course, Communicating your research, Uni. of Exeter, UK

Committees and Service:

2022 – 2025     Hubble Space Telescope Users Committee (STUC) Member, STScI, USA

2021 – 2023     Research Committee member, School of Physics, University of Bristol, UK

2021 – 2023    Sustainability Committee Academic Chair, School of Physics, University of Bristol, UK

2021 – 2023     Early Career Forum Chair, School of Physics, University of Bristol, UK

2021 – 2023     Admissions and Open Day Team member, School of Physics, University of Bristol, UK

2020 – 2023     Marketing Chair, School of Physics, University of Bristol, UK

2017 –             JWST DD-ERS Exoplanet Community Program, Transmission working group co-lead

2018 – 2020     Webb Science Content Working Group member, STScI, USA

2017 – 2020     Lead science consultant, The Exoplanet MAST database (exo.MAST), STScI, USA

2016 – 2020     Development team member, Exoplanet Characterization Toolkit (ExoCTK), STScI, USA

Select Scientific Conferences since 2015:

For a full list of attended conferences see link to complete CV at the top of the page.

Aug 2023: STFC Astronomy Summer School, Invited speaker, Hull, UK
July 2023: Sagan Summer School, Invited talk, Pasadena, USA
July 2023: RAS NAM, Cardiff University, Invited Plenary, Cardiff, UK
May 2023: STScI Spring Symposium, Invited talk, Baltimore, USA
July 2022: RAS NAM, Invited panelist, University of Warwick, UK
June 2022: Gaia Workshop on Astroseismology, Invited Keynote Speaker, Aarhus, Denmark
May 2022: Exoplanets IV, poster presentation, Las Vegas, USA
June 2021: Frontiers of Science UK-V4 Meeting – Cloudy with a chance of water, Invited Poster, The Royal Society, London, UK – ONLINE
Jan 2021: Planets, exoplanets and their systems in a broad and multidisciplinary context – The role of clouds in exoplanet atmospheres, Invited lesson, Advanced school of the IAA-SO, Granada, Spain – ONLINE
Jan 2021: RAS Specilist Discussion Meeting: Exoplanet modelling in the James Webb Era – Observational challenges when interpreting exoplanet atmospheres – Invited talk, The Royal Astronomical Society, London, UK – ONLINE
Jan 2020: Future exploration of the ice giants – The Exoplanet Perspective, The Royal Society, London, UK
Jan 2020: AAS 235th Winter meetin, Honolulu, USA
– Contributed talk (Exoplanet observations with WFC3’s UVIS grism)
Oct 2019: Bash Symposium, Austin, TX, USA (Exoplanet atmospheres)
Aug 2019: Exoclimes V, University of Oxford, UK – Keynote: Observing Terrestrial Exoplanet Targets
Jan 2019: AAS 233rd Winter meeting, Seattle, USA
– Contributed talk (TRAPPIST-1g)
– contributed poster (ExoCast #ExoCup)
– Hyperwall presentation (Characterizing Exoplanets with JWST)
Mar 2018: European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, Liverpool, UK – Invited talks (JWST, Exoplanets)
Mar 2018: UK Exoplanet meeting, Oxford, UK – Contributed talk
Oct 2017: BDExoCon, DE, USA – Invited speaker
July 2017: Transiting Exoplanet Observations with JWST, STScI, MD, USA – Contributed talk
Jan 2017: AAS 229, TX, USA – Contributed talk
Oct 2016: AAS DPS 48/EPSC 11, CA, USA – Contributed talk
Aug 2016: Exoclimes 2016 Conference, BC, Canada – Contributed talk
June 2016: Emerging Research in Exoplanet Science II, Cornell Uni, USA – Contributed talk
Dec 2015: AAS Extreme Solar Systems III conference, Hawaii, USA. Poster
Nov 2015: JWST: Transiting Exopanets workshop, STSci, MD, USA. Workshop Poster
Nov 2015: AAS DPS 47, National Harbor, MD, USA. Dissertation presentation
Sep 2015: Comparative Climate of Terrestrial Planets 2, NASA AMES, USA. Contributed talk
June 2015: From super-Earths to brown dwarfs, IAP, Paris, France – Contributed talk
Mar 2015: UK Exoplanet Meeting, Warwick, UK. Contributed talk

Select Invited Seminars:

For a full list of invited seminar talks see link to complete CV at the top of the page.

Jan 2024: Birmingham,
Jan 2024: Leicester
Nov 2023:  MPI, Colloquia
Oct 2023: Geneva, Colloquia
Jan 2023: University of Oxford, UK, Colloquia
Dec 2022: Max Planck Institute of Astrophysics, Heidelberg, Germany, Colloquia
Feb 2022: Queen Mary, University of London, Astrophysics Seminar – ONLINE
Dec 2021: IPAC Colloquia, Caltech, USA – ONLINE (postponed from May 2021 due to appendicitis)
Nov 2021: University of Exeter, Astrophysics Seminar Series – ONLINE
Feb 2021: UCL Astrophysics Seminar Series – ONLINE
Nov 2020: University of Bristol Physics Colloquia – ONLINE
July 2020: Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK – Remote lockdown talk
June 2020: University of Oxford, UK – Physics seminar – Remote lockdown talk
May 2020: Imperial College London, UK – Remote lockdown talk
Feb 2020: University of Bristol, UK – Astrophysics seminar
Apr 2019: American Museum of Natural History, NYC, USA – Astrophysics event
Mar 2019: University of California: Santa Cruz, CA, USA – OWL seminar
Oct 2018: Cornell University, NY, USA – Planetary Lunch Seminar
Aug 2018: University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands – API seminar series.
July 2018: University of Leicester, UK – Colloquium Speaker.
Feb 2017: University of Arizona, AZ, USA – Origins seminar series.
Nov 2016: Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA – CEHW seminar.
Oct 2016: University of California: Santa Cruz, CA, USA – OWL seminar.
Oct 2016: California Institute of Technology, CA, USA – Astrophysics seminar. Oct 2016: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CA, USA – Exochem seminar.
Apr 2016: University of Oxford, UK – Planetary seminar.
Apr 2016: University of Cambridge, UK – Astronomy seminar.
Mar 2016: University of Delaware, DE, USA – Astronomy seminar
Nov 2015: Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, MA, USA – Astrophysics seminar.
Oct 2015: Carnegie DTM, Washington DC, USA – DTM seminar.

Scientific Communication and Public Engagement: