Dirk van Dam


... is a half Dutch half Venezuelan PhD student working at the Leiden Observatory, which is part of the Faculty of Science of the Leiden University since September 2018. Though I started off by studing Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Delft at the 3mE faculty, the allure of the astronomy proved too strong. I am currently working on "Seeing the Shadows of Giant Circumplanetary Rings: Studying Planet and Moon Formation" under the supervision of Matthew Kenworthy. My further research interests include exoplanet research (formation, atmosphere characterisation, variability...) and the high contrast imaging techniques and the astronomical instrumentation required to expose exoplanets and other interesting objects hidden by the stellar halo (i.e. disks).

Here is my Curriculum Vitae as of September 2018


Contact Information

E-mail: dmvandam@strw.leidenuniv.nl / Phone: +31 (0) 71 527 5988

Twitter: @dam_dirk / GitHub: dmvandam / ORCID: 0000-0002-1033-3461

Post Address: Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands


Published Research

An Asymmetric Eclipse Seen toward the Pre-main-sequence Binary System V928 Tau


Unpublished Research

High Resolution Polarisation Imaging of 1SWASP J140747.93-394542.6 - The Search for an Extrasolar Ring System

Simulating and Prototyping a Compact Birefringent Snapshot Imaging System for Measuring Atmospheric Trace Gas Concentrations