Helene Flohic

I completed my Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics under the supervision of Prof. Michael Eracleous at the Pennsylvania State University in 2008. During my thesis, I tested models for the structure of the broad line region against spectroscopic monitoring data sets of Active Galactic Nuclei.

Also I have worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Irvine, working with Prof. David Buote on X-ray evidence of feedback in galaxy groups. In 2010, I awarded a Fondecyt postdoctoral fellowship to work with Prof. Paulina Lira at the Universidad de Chile. By targeting AGNs with a low black hole mass for spectroscopic and photometric monitoring (using the SMARTS 1.5m and Swift), I‘m  building a rich data sets in a fraction of the time needed for traditional monitoring campaigns. Also, I compared the observed variability with predictions obtained from different models of the broad line region.

Finally, I‘m involved in UV/optical observations of black hole binary candidates with the Hubble Space Telescope and the HET in order to confirm their nature.

Studies

• Awards
• Publications