Suzanne Aigrain

Prof Suzanne Aigrain is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. Previously, she was a Lecturer at the University of Exeter and a PPARC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. Her research focuses on exoplanet detection and characterization using transit and radial velocity methods, stellar activity impacts on exoplanet studies, and Bayesian data analysis. She leads the PLATO mission's data analysis efforts and is a key member of the Terra Hunting Experiment (THE), which will use the HARPS3 spectrograph to search for nearby Earth-like planets. Her work includes pioneering Gaussian Process regression techniques to analyze exoplanet datasets and mitigate stellar activity effects. She is Principal Investigator of the European Research Council-funded 'GPRV' project and receives UKRI/STFC funding for TESS and PLATO missions.

Research interests include exoplanets, stellar activity, and advanced data analysis methods. She has contributed to space missions like CoRoT, Kepler, K2, TESS, and PLATO (launching 2026). Her recent work emphasizes developing algorithms to handle activity noise in RV data and simulating PLATO mission outcomes. She also promotes citizen science and best practices in data analysis.

Key collaborations include the Stars & Planets @ Oxford research group and involvement with the Terra Hunting Experiment. Her research has advanced methods for detecting small planets and characterizing their properties using high-precision photometry and spectroscopy.