Hilding Neilson
Assistant Professor
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
University of Toronto
Canada
Biography
Stars form a crucial component of the Universe, as engines creating the elements necessary for life to being beacons for cosmological studies. I am interested in all aspects of stellar astrophysics , but have been primarily focused on the structure and evolution of intermediate- and high-mass stars to both calibrate standard candles such as Cepheids and to understand the transition from blue to yellow to red supergiants as probes of supernova progenitors using population synthesis, stellar evolution, atmosphere and hydrodynamic models along with various types of observations such as spectra, interferometry, long time series and polarization. I am also interested in using planetary transit observations to directly probe the properties of planet-hosting stars by developing new tools to fit observations using model stellar atmospheres. By better knowing those stars, we better know the planets they host.
Research Interest
Massive star evolution, atmospheres, stellar pulsation, stellar winds, binarity, convection, exoplanets, planet-hosting stars.
