Christoph Keller

Christoph Keller

Director of Science

Lowell Observatory

Short Biography

Christoph joined Lowell Observatory as the Director of Science in early 2022. His research expertise includes (exo-)planets, solar and stellar magnetic fields, aerosols and trace gases in planetary atmospheres as well as innovative optical instruments for astronomy, remote sensing and biomedical imaging. He has authored or co-authored more than 350 publications and received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel award for outstanding research in astrophysics. He is a world-leading expert in high-accuracy polarimetry for astronomy and environmental sensing with the world’s largest telescopes and the latest space instruments for climate science.

Christoph has a long track record at observatories and universities. He worked for a decade at the National Solar Observatory in Tucson and was in charge of the iconic McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope on Kitt Peak. He then joined Utrecht University in The Netherlands and became the director of its Astronomical Institute. He served on oversight and visiting committees and also chaired the board of the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes on the Canary Islands. After 10 years as a professor at Leiden University, he joined Lowell Observatory where he works on providing the ideal environment for researchers to do great science.

Interests

  • Exoplanetary systems and solar system
  • Innovative optical instrumentation
  • Solar physics
  • Remote sensing of aerosol and trace gases
  • Interdisciplinary research

Education

  • Dr. sc. nat. ETH (PhD in Physics), 1992

    ETH Zürich, Switzerland

  • Dipl. Phys. ETH (MSc in Physics), 1988

    ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Positions

 
 
 
 
 

Director of Science

Lowell Observatory

Jan 2022 – Present Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
 
 
 
 
 

Guest Professor

Leiden Observatory, Leiden University

Jan 2022 – Present Leiden, The Netherlands
 
 
 
 
 

Professor of Experimental Astrophysics

Leiden Observatory, Leiden University

Jan 2012 – Jan 2022 Leiden, The Netherlands
 
 
 
 
 

Director

Sterrekundig Instituut, Utrecht University

Jan 2009 – Dec 2011 Utrecht, The Netherlands
 
 
 
 
 

Professor of Experimental Astrophysics

Sterrekundig Instituut, Utrecht University

Jul 2005 – Dec 2011 Utrecht, The Netherlands
 
 
 
 
 

Associate Astronomer

National Solar Observatory

Jul 1995 – Jun 2005 Tucson, USA
 
 
 
 
 

Research Associate

National Solar Observatory

Jan 1994 – Jun 1995 Tucson, USA
 
 
 
 
 

Postdoc

ETH Zurich

Nov 1992 – Dec 1993 Zurich, Switzerland

Recent Publications

Recent Projects

SPHERE+

Upgrade of SPHERE at the VLT.

Compressed multiline spectroscopic trace gas sensing

Highly-multiplexed Bragg gratings for optically adding spectral lines

Non-linear control of adaptive optics for exoplanet imaging

Maximizing the contrast instead of minimizing wavefront aberrations.

Planets and Inner Disks in Reflected Starlight with SPHERE/ZIMPOL

Improving the polarimetric sensitivity by understanding beamshifts

European Solar Telescope

EST is a 4-meter class solar telescope, to be located in the Canary Islands. We were part of the EST FP-7 design study grant and were in charge of the polarization optics as well as the building and the dome. for this telescope.

EPICS

ExoPlanet Imager and Characterization Instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)

Team

PhD Students

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Rico Landman

PhD student

Exoplanet characterization, Deep learning

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Fedde Fagginger Auer

PhD student

Exoplanets, Remote sensing of trace gases, Instrumentation

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Vikram Radhakrishnan

PhD student

Adaptive Optics, Deep learning

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Elina Kleisioti

PhD student (daily supervisor: Matthew Kenworthy)

Exomoons, Observations, Modeling

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Stephanie Heikamp

PhD student

Polarimetric imaging

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Thijs Stockmans

PhD student

Remote sensing, Polarimetry, Compressed sensing

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Willeke Mulder

PhD student

Remote detection of life, Polarimetry

Alumni

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Hector Canovas

PhD 2007-2011

Scientist, ESA

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Jos de Boer

PhD 2012-2017

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Michiel Min

Postdoc 2009-2011

Head of Exoplanet Division, SRON

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Michiel Rodenhuis

PhD 2007-2011, Postdoc 2012-2014

Instrumentation Coordinator, NOVA

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Sandra Jeffers

Postdoc 2006-2011

Lecturer, Universität Göttingen

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Tim van Werkhoven

PhD 2009-2014

Strategic Marketing Analyst, ASML

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Frans Snik

PhD 2005-2009, Postdoc 2010-2015

Assistant Professor, Leiden Observatory

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Alexander Bohn

PhD 2017-2021

Consultant at AWK Group

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Alfred de Wijn

PhD 2002-2006

Research Engineer II, HAO, NCAR

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Ana Chies Santos

PhD 2007-2011

Professor, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

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Andrew Ridden Harper

PhD 2014-2018

Research Associate, Cornell University

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Catherine Fischer

PhD 2006-2010

Junior research group leader, Leibniz-Institute for Solar Physics

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Christian Ginski

Postdoc 2014-2018

Lecturer at the University of Galway, Ireland

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David Doelman

PhD 2017-2021

Postdoc at Leiden University

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Emiel Por

PhD 2016-2020

Hubble Fellow, STScI

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Esteban Silva-Villa

PhD 2007-2011

Assistant Professor, University of Antioquia

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Floor Derkink

PhD student 2020-2023

Technical Product Consultant at TOPdesk

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Gerard van Harten

PhD 2010-2014

Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Gilles Otten

PhD 2011-2016

Postdoc, CNRS, LAM Marseille

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Jorrit Leenaarts

PhD 2003-2007

Professor, Director, Institute for Solar Physics, Stockholm

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Maria de Juan Ovelar

PhD 2010-2013

Research Fellow, Liverpool John Moores University

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Matteo Brogi

PhD 2010-2014

Assistant Professor, University of Warwick

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Michael Wilby

PhD 2014-2018

Image Processing and Artificial Intelligence Engineer at Deimos Space UK

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Nikola Vitas

PhD 2006-2010

Researcher, IAC

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Olivier Burggraaff

PhD student (daily supervisor: Frans Snik)

Postdoctoral Researcher, Leiden University, Netherlands

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Pietro Bernasconi

PhD 1993-1997

Solar Physicist, Johns Hopkins University

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Rob van Holstein

PhD 2016-2021

Postdoc at ESO, Chile

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Sebastiaan Haffert

PhD 2015-2019

Hubble Fellow, University of Arizona

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Steven Bos

PhD 2017-2021

Design Engineer at ASML

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Tayeb Aiouaz

Postdoc 2007-2009

Technical Lead, Cetim

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Theodora Karalidi

PhD 2008-2013

Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida

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Thomas Wijnen

Postdoc 2017-2019

Postdoctoral Researcher, TU Delft

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Visa Korkiakoski

Postdoc 2010-2013

Researcher, Australian National University

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