Rosemary Coogan | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1991 (age 32–33) |
| Alma mater | University of Sussex Durham University |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics CNES |
| Thesis | The impact of environment on galaxy evolution : starburst and AGN activity (2019) |
Rosemary Theresa Coogan (born 1991) is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland. Her research considers galaxy evolution and space-based telescopes. She was selected as a member of the 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group.
Coogan attended Brighton & Hove High School, now Brighton Girls.[citation needed] She was involved with military training from a young age.[1] She was trained as a petty officer with the Sea Cadets. In 2009 she joined HMS Calliope and HMS Example, where she was made an Officer cadet.[1] She was later promoted to Midshipman of the Royal Naval Reserve.[2]
Coogan studied for her undergraduate degree in Physics at Durham University (University College), graduating in 2013.[2] She remained in Durham for her master's research, where she studied gamma-ray astronomy with Paula Chadwick.[3][4] Her research involved observations using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to study the 0.1 < Eγ < 300 GeV gamma-ray emission of radio quasars. Coogan also worked on data science during a work placement at Senseye.[5] She worked as a simulation support engineer to develop machine learning models to detect anomalies from robotic sensors.
Coogan moved to the University of Sussex as a doctoral researcher, studying galaxy evolution and the activity of active galactic nuclei.[6] She found that dense cluster environment increases the star formation efficiency, which she attributed to the high number of mergers, interactions and the active galactic nuclei.[6] Toward the end of her doctorate, she attempted to inform future observations by constructing mock images of survey fields for the Square Kilometre Array.[6]
Coogan moved to the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.[1][7] In Germany, Coogan studied galaxy evolution with space-based telescopes. In 2022, Coogan was appointed to the CNES, where she works on Euclid and James Webb Space Telescope.[1]
In 2022, Coogan was selected by the European Astronaut Corps to join the European Space Agency Astronaut Group.[1][8] She said that she applied to the space program because she wanted to get "hands-on" with contributing the most that we can from space.[1]
