Rosemary Coogan
Birth date1991 (age 35–36)
Birth placeBelfast, United Kingdom
WorkplacesMax Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
CNES
Alma materUniversity of Sussex (PhD)
University College, Durham (MPhys, MSc)
Thesis urlhttps://worldcat.org/en/title/1140125601
Thesis year2019

Rosemary Theresa Coogan (born 1991) is an astrophysicist and UK astronaut from Northern Ireland.[1] Her research considers galaxy evolution and space-based telescopes. She is part of ESA's European Astronaut Corps.

Early life and education

Coogan was educated at Brighton & Hove High School, now Brighton Girls.[2] She was involved with military training from a young age.[3] 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.[3] She was later promoted to Midshipman of the Royal Naval Reserve.[4]

Coogan studied for her undergraduate degree in Physics at Durham University (University College), graduating in 2013.[4] She remained in Durham for her master's research, where she studied gamma-ray astronomy with Paula Chadwick.[5][6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[8] Toward the end of her doctorate, she attempted to inform future observations by constructing mock images of survey fields for the Square Kilometre Array.[8]

Career

Coogan moved to the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.[3][9] 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.[3]

In 2022, Coogan was selected by the European Astronaut Corps to join the 2022 European Space Agency Astronaut Group.[3][10] She said that she applied to the space programme because she wanted to get "hands-on" with contributing the most that we can from space.[3] Coogan completed ESA's Basic Training curriculum at the European Astronaut Centre, and graduated on 22 April 2024 alongside her classmates from "The Hoppers"[11] group.[12]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ "UK astronaut Dr Rosemary Coogan aims for the stars after graduation". UK Government. Retrieved 2025-03-24.
  2. ^ "Brighton astronaut graduates from space academy". Brighton & Hove News. 22 April 2024. Retrieved 2025-03-24.
  3. ^ "Rosemary Coogan". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
  4. ^ "Rosemary Coogan". Dunelm Magazine. ' (9): 13. 4 August 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  5. ^ Coogan, Rosemary (2015). Localising the gamma-ray emission region of flaring Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (Masters). Durham University.
  6. ^ University, Durham. "Prof Paula Chadwick - Durham University". www.durham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
  7. ^ "SEPnet Value of Work Experience"
  8. ^ "The impact of environment on galaxy evolution : starburst and AGN activity | WorldCat.org". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
  9. ^ "International Astronomical Union | IAU". www.iau.org. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
  10. ^ "NI astronomer Rosemary Coogan to join European Space Agency as a career astronaut". belfasttelegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2022-11-23.
  11. ^ "The Hoppers". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  12. ^ "ESA's astronaut class of 2022 graduate". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2024-04-22.