Astronomy
Hi. My name is Freeke, but it is not pronounced the way you think it is. I finished my PhD in 2012 at
Leiden Observatory in The Netherlands, where I was working with
Joop Schaye, using cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations to study the growth of galaxies and haloes. In the past, I also worked at STScI in Baltimore, at CRAL in Lyon, and at MPA in Munich.
After a short
CosmoComp fellowship at
IATE in Córdoba, Argentina, a
TAC-ASIAA postdoctoral
fellowship at
UC Berkeley (USA)
and
ASIAA (Taiwan), and a
Tschira
postdoctoral fellowship at
HITS (Germany) and
Yale (USA), I am now a postdoc at
MPA in Garching, Germany.
Non-astronomy
After growing up in the neighbouring villages Hulsel and Bladel, I lived in Leiden during my undergraduate carreer and in The Hague during my PhD.
I often went scuba diving with the
Leiden Student Diving club and keep a
log in Dutch. Exploring somewhat more tropical seas than the one back home is, of course, also part of the fun.
Before moving away, I played the bassoon in the
The Hague student orchestra Valerius and I hope to find a new orchestra as soon as my bassoon and me are reunited.
I believe that you will get the most out of living in a different country, if you speak its language, which is why I am trying to learn Spanish while I'm in Argentina. I also started taking tango classes. So far, my level in both Spanish and tango is that of 'enthusiastic beginner'.
I like long distance cycling and camping, which comes with having Dutch genes. I spend a good deal of my time traveling around in other countries, but not necessarily by bike.
