Curriculum Vitae

Pedro Lacerda
Born March 27th, 1975, in Lisbon, Portugal

Address

Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Dr, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
tel.: +1 808 956 6098 email: lacerda.pedro@gmail.com

Current Appointment

Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Hawaii. Supervisor: David Jewitt

Education

Leiden University, Ph. D. promotor: Prof. Harm Habing; advisor: Jane Luu;
Thesis: The shapes and spins of Kuiper Belt objects.
Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, degree of Licenciado in Theoretical Physics.
Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal, Electrotechnical & Computer Engineering.

Honors

Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal, FCT Postdoctoral Fellowship;
research advisors: João Fernandes & David Jewitt.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, SAO Predoctoral Fellowship;
research advisor: Scott Kenyon.

Refereed Publications

Lacerda, P. 2008. Detection of Contact Binaries Using Sparse High Phase Angle Light Curves. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 672, L57
Sheppard, S. S., Lacerda, P., & Ortiz, J.-L. 2008. Photometric Light Curves of Trans-Neptunian Objects and Centaurs: Rotations and Shapes. Chapter in "The Solar System Beyond Neptune", ed. A. Barucci, H. Boehnhardt, D. Cruikshank and A. Morbidelli (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press), in press
Mann, R., Jewitt, D., & Lacerda, P. 2007. Fraction of Contact Binary Trojan Asteroids. The Astronomical Journal, 134, 1133
Lacerda, P. & Jewitt, D. 2007. Densities of solar system objects from their rotational lightcurves. The Astronomical Journal, 133, 1393
Lacerda, P. & Luu, J. 2006. Analysis of the rotational properties of Kuiper belt objects. The Astronomical Journal, 131, 2314
Luu, J. & Lacerda, P. 2003. The shape distribution of Kuiper Belt objects. Earth Moon and Planets, 92, 221
Lacerda, P. & Luu, J. 2003. On the detectability of lightcurves of Kuiper belt objects. Icarus, 161, 174.
Rousselot, P., Petit, J.-M., Poulet, F., Lacerda, P., Ortiz, J.-L. 2003. Photometry of the Kuiper Belt object 1999 TD10 at different phase angles. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 407, 1139.
Peixinho, N., Lacerda, P., Ortiz, J.-L. Doressoundiram, A., Roos-Serote, M., & Gutiérrez, P. J., 2001. Photometric study of Centaurs (10199) Chariklo (1997 CU26) and 1999 UG5. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 371, 753

Non-refereed Publications & Conference Proceedings

Lacerda, P. 2007. Detection of Contact Binaries, 39th DPS, Orlando, Florida, USA
Jewitt, D., Lacerda, P. & Peixinho, N. 2007. Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro, IAU Circ., 8847, 1 (2007)
Lacerda, P. 2007. The Fraction of KBO Contact Binaries, AAS Meeting 210, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Lacerda, P. 2006. Densities From Lightcurves, 38th DPS, Pasadena, California, USA
Lacerda, P. 2006. Densities of solar system objects by lightcurve comparison with triaxial equilibrium ellipsoids, 26th IAU, JD10, Prague, Czech Republic
Lacerda, P., Dominic, C., Luu, J., Kenyon, S. 2006. The origin of the spins of Kuiper belt objects. Proceedings of XV ENAA, Lisbon, Portugal, Jul 2005
Lacerda, P. & Luu, J. 2003. Detectability of Lightcurves of KBOs, 25th IAU, JD19, Sydney, Australia.
Lacerda, P., 2003. On the detectability of light curves of Kuiper Belt objects. Journal of Astronomical Data, 9, 8
Lacerda, P., & Luu, J., 2002. On the detectability of lightcurves of Kuiper belt objects. ESA SP-500: Proceedings of Asteroids, Comets, Meteors, ACM 2002, 51.
Peixinho, N., Lacerda, P., Ortiz, J.-L., Doressoundiram, A., Roos-Serote, M., & Gutiérrez, P. J., 2001. Photometry of Centaurs 1997 CU26 and 1999 UG5. Proceedings: Astronomy & Astrophysics: Recent Developments, 188

Teaching Experience

Solar System teacher at the BEST Summer School, Jul 2005, Coimbra, Portugal
Teaching Fellow for Astronomy 1, Spring Term 2003, Harvard University, USA.
Teaching assistant at the 5th Leiden-Dwingeloo Summer School in Astrophysics, Jul 22-Aug 3, 2001, the Netherlands

Technical

UV, optical, and near and mid-infrared imaging and spectroscopy. Major programming languages, data reduction, plotting, and presentation software (Mathematica, IDL, bash, awk, sed, Fortran, C, C++, Python, LateX, IRAF, SExtractor, POV-Ray, Kaleida Graph, Excel, Keynote, PowerPoint, etc.)

Languages

Native: Portuguese; Fluent: English, Italian; Good: French, Dutch, Spanish; Basic: German

Conferences, Workshops and Schools attended

39th DPS meeting, Orlando, Florida USA; Oct 2007. Contribution: Detection of Contact Binaries
Binaries in the Solar System, Steamboat Springs, Colorado USA; Aug 20-23, 2007. Contribution: The abundance of contact binaries in the Kuiper belt
Astronomy in the submillimeter and far infrared domains with the Herschel Space Observatory, Les Houches, France; Apr 23-May 4, 2007. Contribution: Small Solar System Bodies through Herschel
Kobe Planetary School, Kobe, Japan; Dec 4-6, 2006. Contribution: The Shape and Density of Trojan 634 Hektor
Belton Symposium, Tucson, Arizona USA; Nov 10, 11, 2006. Contribution: Density Determinations in the Solar System
38th DPS meeting, Pasadena, USA; Oct 8-13, 2006. Contribution: Densities from Lightcurves
Trans Neptunian Objects - Dynamical and Physical properties, Catania, Italy; Jul 3-7, 2006. Contribution: Analysis of the Rotational Properties of KBOs
37th DPS meeting, Cambrigde, UK; Sep 4-9, 2005. Contribution: On the origin of KBO spins
XXVth IAU General Assembly, Sydney, Australia; July 13-26, 2003. Contribution: Detectability of lightcurves of KBOs
13th National Conference of the Portuguese Physical Society. Contribution: On the detectability of lightcurves of KBOs.
Joint European and National Astronomical Meeting, held in Porto, Portugal, in September 2002. Contribution: On the detectability of lightcurves of KBOs.
Conference Asteroids, Comets and Meteors (ACM2002) held in Berlin from July 29 to August 2, 2002. Contribution: On the detectability of lightcurves of KBOs.
57th Dutch Astronomical Conference, May 2002. Contribution: Lightcurves of Kuiper Belt Objects.
XI Portuguese Astronomy and Astrophysics Meeting (XIENAA), Madeira, Portugal, July 2001. Contribution: Rotational Properties of KBOs.
Conference "Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy III", Penn State University, USA, July 2001
Workshop "Physical Properties of Kuiper Belt Objects", Meudon, Paris, June 2001
NOVA Autumn School, Dwingeloo, the Netherlands, September 2000. Contribution: The Kuiper Belt.
XXV General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society, Nice, France, April 2000.
Workshop "Portuguese Astrophysical Research for the VLT Era", Lisbon, Portugal, April 2000. Contribution: On the rotation of Centaur 1997 CU26.
Interdisciplinary Summer School on the Solar System (EVISS), Coimbra, Portugal, August 1999. Contribution: Evolution of a disk of planetesimals under the influence of a perturber body.

Other Experiences

Worked part-time at the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL), on analysis of photometric data of Centaurs and comets, and helping in public outreach programs.
Worked part-time for three years at Telepac telecommunications company, giving technical support concerning computers and internet, from 1996 to 1999.
One month's probation at the Siemens factory of oil-filled distribution transformers, working at the Materials Laboratory of the Quality Control Department, July 1991, Sabugo, Portugal