Top
Skip to Content
LOGO(small) - Queen's University Belfast
  • Our facebook
  • Our twitter
  • Our
  • Our
LOGO(large) - Queen's University Belfast

School of

Mathematics and Physics

  • Home
  • Study
    • Undergraduate Maths
    • Undergraduate Physics
    • Postgraduate Taught
    • Postgraduate Research
    • International
    • Student Handbook
    • Scholarships
    • Visiting Students
  • Research
    • Research Showcase
    • Outreach & Engagement
    • Research Culture and Seminars
    • Consultancy and Knowledge Transfer
    • Research Centres
    • Postgraduate Research
    • Facilities
  • International
  • Business / Careers
  • Discover
    • About the School
    • Gender Equality
    • Outreach
    • Green Impact
    • Safe Harbour Scheme
    • Mental Health Ambassador Scheme
  • Connect
    • Staff
    • Get in touch
  • News
    • News Archive
  • Events
  • Home
  • Study
    • Undergraduate Maths
    • Undergraduate Physics
    • Postgraduate Taught
    • Postgraduate Research
    • International
    • Student Handbook
    • Scholarships
    • Visiting Students
  • Research
    • Research Showcase
    • Outreach & Engagement
    • Research Culture and Seminars
    • Consultancy and Knowledge Transfer
    • Research Centres
    • Postgraduate Research
    • Facilities
  • International
  • Business / Careers
  • Discover
    • About the School
    • Gender Equality
    • Outreach
    • Green Impact
    • Safe Harbour Scheme
    • Mental Health Ambassador Scheme
  • Connect
    • Staff
    • Get in touch
  • News
    • News Archive
  • Events
  • Our facebook
  • Our twitter
  • Our
In This Section

  • Home
  • School of Mathematics and Physics
  • Research
  • Research Culture and Seminars
  • PhD Research Students
  • Sean O'Brien - Student Profile

Sean O'Brien - Student Profile

Sean O'Brien (He/Him)

 PhD student profile photo, male in an up close photo

Current research project

Crowd-Sourced Applications to the Next-Generation Transit Survey

Exoplanet detection using transit surveys relies on many hours of human vetting to search for transit-like signals and filter out false positives. The power of citizen science has been proven by projects such as Galaxy Zoo, Planet Hunters and Planet Hunters TESS. These platforms present images or light curves from telescopes and utilise classifications from public volunteers to categorise astronomical phenomena, drastically increasing the speed at which researchers can discover new objects such as transiting exoplanets. My research is focused on exoplanet detection and measuring the detection efficiencies of citizen scientists using the ngts.planethunters.org Zooniverse project. Planet Hunters NGTS is the next iteration of the Planet Hunters project, using data from the Next-Generation Transit Survey to search for exoplanet candidates missed in the initial searches by the science team.

Biography

Prior to starting my PhD, I graduated with a MSc by Research in Physics from the University of Warwick. For my Master's project, I measured the variation in atmospheric scintillation above Paranal Observatory and its correlation with high-altitude wind speeds. I used NGTS data to make these measurements and study the noise properties of scintillation-limited photometry.

Research interests

  • Exoplanet detection
  • Exoplanetary system characterisation
  • Atmospheric scintillation 

Pure page

https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/sean-obrien

 

PhD Research Students
  • PhD Research Students
Queen's University Belfast - Logo (small)
Contact Us

School of Mathematics and Physics

Main Physics Building
University Road
Belfast
BT7 1NN

GET DIRECTIONS

General School Enquiries:

E-mail: mp@qub.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)28 9097 1386/5293

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Study
  • Careers
  • Research

 

© Queen's University Belfast 2022
Privacy and cookies
Website accessibility
Freedom of information
Modern slavery statement
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion