Martina Chruslinska awarded Christine Mohnmann Grant 2020-2021

On Thursday 25 March, ten female PhD candidates from Radboud University will be awarded a Christine Mohrmann Grant  2020-2021. The purpose of the grant is to encourage researchers to continue their academic career after completing their PhDs. The grant – 5000 euros each – gives them an opportunity to spend time at another university, preferably one abroad.

We are very proud that Astronomy PhD candidate Martyna Chruslinska is one of the 10 excellent researchers to receive this award!

In her research, Martyna aims to understand what are the typical abundances of elements heavier than helium with which the stars are born across the Universe. Heavy elements are produced in stellar interiors and gradually released to the surrounding medium, where the new stars can form.

Different initial abundances of those elements strongly affect the evolution of massive stars - in particular, their potential to form observable gravitational wave sources. This research will help with the correct interpretation of the observed populations of gravitational wave sources. The Mohrmann Stipend is used for two visits. The first will be to the group of Prof. Kalogera at Northwestern University (USA). Ms. Kalogera is one of the leading scientists on the formation of neutron stars and black holes in binary stars and, of course, a role model for female astronomers. The second visit would be to the gravitational wave group at New York's new Flatiron Institute, where some leading scientists are working to optimally reconstruct the amount of gravitational wave sources in the Universe, whereby the use of the results of Martyna is of great importance.

Congratulations!