Élise Leclerc

Élise is a first-year Master’s student in astrophysics in Dr. Nicolas Cowan’s research group at McGill University. Her work focuses on characterizing the climates and atmospheres of exoplanets, particularly in the context of the ARIEL space mission of the European Space Agency.

She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Physics at the Université de Montréal in May 2025. During the summers of 2023 and 2024, she completed two research internships with Dr. Jonathan Gagné at the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREx), in collaboration with the Planétarium de Montréal. Her projects involved the characterization of planetary-mass objects (planemos) in the solar neighborhood, as well as the development of tools to identify new planemo candidates and analyze their observational data.
Alongside her research, Élise is passionate about science outreach, particularly initiatives aimed at young girls and women. She has participated in several outreach activities organized by IREx throughout her studies.