Damien SŽgransan                                                              Date of birth : March 27th 1972

Observatoire de Geneve                                                  Nationality : french

CH-1290 Sauverny                                                              Mother tongue :  french

Switzerland                                                                        Married, 3 children (5, 3, 1 year old)

Tel : (+41) 223 792 479

Fax : (+41) 223 792 205                                                         

Email : Damien dot Segransan at obs.unige.ch

www : http://obswww.unige.ch/~segransa/

 

 

Astronomer

 

 

Research Interests

- Physics of very low mass stars, brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets

- Observational technics : adaptive optics, long baseline interferometry and radial velocities

 

 

Main results

- Adaptive optics and infrared interferometry observations of very low mass stars

- High contrast imaging of low mass star

 

 

Skills

- Image and signal processing : wavelets, Fourier, deconvolution

- Programming languages : C, Java, JavaBeans, Idl, Maple, Tcl/tk, Unix, html.

- Foreign languages : English, German

 

 

Current position

Physicist at Geneva Observatory.

- Project scientist deputy of the narrow angle astrometric instrument ESO/PRIMA/DDL.

- Science team member of the planet search astrometric survey, ESPRI.

- Science team member of the planet search radial velocity survey, SOPHIE.

- Work package manager of the Observation Preparation tools of ESO/PRIMA/DDL instrument

- Work package manager of the Astrometric Fitting Software (JR4)

- Member of the GAIA CU4 : responsible for the development of a genetic algorithm to search for planets in astrometric data.

- Coordinator of the NASA/SIM-GRID verification program for the southern hemisphere.

- Maintenance of the radial velocity database of the CORALIE instrument

 

 

Work history

Jannuary 2005 – Now: Physicist at Geneva Observatory.

 

July 2001-December 2004 : Post-doc at Geneva Observatory (Switzerland)

-             ESA Science-team member of the GENIE instrument.

 

October 1998-June 2001 : Phd Thesis in Astrophysics at Grenoble Observatory, France

           - Very low mass stars : multiplicity and mass luminosity relation

- Image processing from the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope adaptive optics system 

- Data processing from the long baseline interferometer IOTA (Tucson, AZ)

- International collaboration between Grenoble Observatory (France), Geneva Observatory (Switzerland), Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA

 

October 1998-June 2001 : Teaching assistant in computer science

 

August 1997-September 1998 : Visiting scholar at  the  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA)

 - Optical instrumentation, IR camera, signal processing on the stellar interferometer IOTA (Tucson, AZ)

 

January 1997-July 1997 : Engineer at AŽrospatiale Space and Defense, Cannes, France

- Worked on the ESA project GAIA dedicated to global astrometry- Modelisation of the optical quality of the satellite and its interferometrical performances.

 

 

Academic

1998-2001 Phd in Astrophysics, The very low mass stars of the solar neighbourhood, Mass-Luminosity relations at l'UniversitŽ Joseph Fourier (UJF), Grenoble, France

1993-1997 Magistre de physique" at l'UniversitŽ Joseph Fourier (UJF), Grenoble, France

1995-1996 DEA "Astrophysique et Milieux DiluŽs" at l'Ecole Normale SupŽrieure de Lyon/UJF

1994–1995 Ma”trise de physique ˆ l'UniversitŽ de Californie de Santa Barbara, USA

1990-1994 DEUG & Licence de physique a` l'UJF, France

1989-1990 BaccalaurŽat sŽrie C, France 

 

 

Publications : The most 5 representative papers

 

 2006astro.ph..9059M Montagnier, G.; SŽgransan, D.; Beuzit, J. –L et al., Five new very low mass binaries

 

 2004A&A...427L...1F Forveille, T.; SŽgransan, D.; Delorme, P et al., An L0 dwarf companion in the brown dwarf desert, at 30 AU

 

 2003A&A...397L...5S SŽgransan, D.; Kervella, P.; Forveille, T.; Queloz, D. First radius measurements of very low mass stars with the VLTI

 

 2000A&A...364..665S SŽgransan, D.; Delfosse, X.; Forveille, T.; Beuzit, J.-L. et al. Accurate masses of very low mass stars. III. 16 new or improved masses

 

 2000A&A...364..217D Delfosse, X.; Forveille, T.; SŽgransan, D.; Beuzit, J.-L. et al. Accurate masses of very low mass stars. IV. Improved mass-luminosity relations

 

 

Invited talks

 

Fundamental Parameters of Low and Very Low Mass Stars Determined by Long-Baseline Interferometry , The power if optical/IR interferometry : Recent scientific results and second generation VLTI instruments, 4-8 April 2005

 

New Search Strategies, Toward other earths, Darwin/TPF and the search for extrasolar terrestrial planets, 22-25 April 2003

 

 

Astronomical journals and agencies Referee              

 

Astrophyiscal Journal (1), Astronomy and Astrophysics (1), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (1), Astronomische Narichten (1)

 

Foreign referee to evaluate funding proposals for natianal agencies : ANR (2006, France)

 

 

Teaching and PhD supervision

 

Four lectures on Visibilities , Observability and UV-coverage and modelisation, at the EuroSummer School of Les Goutelas, EuroSummer School – Observation data reduction with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, Goutelas (France), 4-16 June 2006.

 

Lecture on Interferometry at the doctoral school of the University of Geneva, Astronomy department, 2003.

 

Two lectures on Observability and UV-coverage at the EuroWinter School of Les Houches, EuroWinter School – Observing the Very Large Telescope Interferometer, Les Houches (France), 3-8 February 2002.

 

Lectures and practical work session in computer sciences applied to physics, 1998-2001

 

Co-supervisor of G. Montagnier PhD thesis (2004-). High contrast imaging of solar neighborhood low mass stars.

 

 

Scientific public outreach

Schools : Institut Education Motrice Association ParalysŽs de France, Eybens, France; Ecole de Collex ;

 

 

Personal interests

Reading, history.

Rock climbing, hiking, trekking, skiing.