Frédéric Genest

Frédéric started his PhD studies at Université de Montréal in January 2021, with Professor David Lafrenière. He is currently working on the analysis of high resolution near-infrared transmission spectra of exoplanets (transit spectra), with data obtained from spectrographs SPIRou (on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) and NIRPS (on the 3.6 m Telescope at La Silla, in Chile). His aim is to detect the presence of molecules such as water vapor and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of those planets. He also hopes to use the very high spectral resolution of these instruments to his advantage and study the influence of various 3D effects within these atmospheres, such as winds, temperature variations and spatial differences in chemical composition.

Frédéric completed his Master’s degree at Université de Montréal with David Lafrenière as well, from 2018 to 2020. He built models of the effect of stellar activity (dark spots and bright faculae) on exoplanet transmission spectra at low and high spectral resolution. He studied the level of risk of false atmospheric detections (e.g. water vapor) at low resolution, and verified whether high resolution could help mitigate that risk.

Frédéric obtained a BSc in Mathematics and Physics from McGill University in 2018. It was during his undergraduate studies that he first came to work with iREx, as a summer intern in 2017.

Supervisor

David Lafrenière

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