Dr Tjarda Boekholt

I am a computational astrophysicist affiliated with the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford, UK. My position is Post-doc Research Assistant in the ERC funded GalNuc project with PI Prof. Bence Kocsis. My main research interests are computational N-body methods and the dynamical evolution of planetary and dense stellar systems.

I obtained my BSc in Astronomy in 2009 and my MSc in 2011 both at Leiden Observatory, Netherlands. My PhD thesis titled "Chaotic Dynamics in N-body Systems" was under supervision of Prof. Simon Portegies Zwart and co-promotor Prof. Douglas Heggie. My first post-doc position was in the Theory and Star formation Group at the University of Concepcion in Chile, in collaboration with Prof. Dominik Schleicher, Prof. Mike Fellhauer and Prof. Amelia Stutz. Then followed a period in Portugal where I started a collaboration with Prof. Alexandre Correia as an FCT fellow, which took me from University of Aveiro, Institute of Telecommunications to University of Coimbra. Besides the FCT, I have also successfully applied for the FONDECYT and the Humboldt fellowships, as well as the Young Doctor Award organised by CIDMA.