معرفی
Dr. Veerle Jasmin Sterken is a Lecturer at the Department of Physics at ETH Zürich, leading the ERC-funded ASTRODUST group since 2020. Her research focuses on interstellar dust dynamics, heliospheric science, and space instrumentation. She has contributed to missions like Ulysses, Cassini, and Stardust, and currently advises the L4 mission and Lunar Gateway dust package initiatives. Sterken holds an ERC Starting Grant (2020-2026) and has authored 55 refereed publications (H-index=20).
Research interests include cosmic dust trajectories, solar wind interactions, space debris mitigation, and mission concept design. Key achievements include modeling heliospheric filtering effects on interstellar dust and identifying low-density ISD particles from Stardust mission data. Collaborations span ESA, NASA, and international research networks.
- ERC Starting Grant ASTRODUST (2020-2026)
- ESA Consultant (2024)
- Principal Investigator for DOLPHIN mission concept
- L4 Mission Science Lead
Advising includes supervision of PhD/MS students and mentorship in interdisciplinary teams. Current lab activities involve dust charging simulations, bulk density retrieval methodologies, and data analysis from Wind and Ulysses missions. Future work emphasizes Interstellar Probe mission synergies and exoplanetary dust studies.
Labs/Teams: ASTRODUST Group (ETHZ), COST Action member, NCCR PlanetS collaborator.
