Skip to main content
Emily Hunt

Emily Hunt

Astronomy postdoc, data & software enthusiast

Postdoc at University of Vienna

Vienna, Vienna, Austria🇦🇹
Open to:Collaborations
Report

I work on challenging software and data analysis problems in astronomy, with a current focus on cluster detection and machine learning.

I'm also passionate about a better future for science communication. I founded The Astrosky Ecosystem, a project to connect the astronomy community with Bluesky & the Atmosphere.

Activity

Active on:Bluesky networkYou & MeEvents

Loading activity...

View full activity

Career: 4

Postdoc

University of Vienna

Full-time · Vienna, Vienna, AT

Sep 2025 - Present

Working on projects relating to the next Gaia data release and relating to open science on the AT Protocol. In addition, I have more senior responsibilities, including teaching and supervising students.

PythonProject ManagementData ScienceCommunicationRustSocial MediaCommunity EngagementTeachingMentoring

Postdoc

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Full-time · Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, DE

Jan 2025 - Jun 2025

I worked on measuring the selection function of my catalogue, producing the first ever probabilistic selection function of a star cluster catalogue, allowing it to be used in sophisticated modelling workflows in the future.

PythonCommunicationProject ManagementData ScienceMachine Learning

Postdoc

Heidelberg University

Full-time · Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, DE

Jul 2023 - Dec 2024

I worked on a further update to the catalogue of clusters from my PhD, creating the largest ever catalogue of cluster masses and using it to better classify the star clusters in my catalogue.

PythonProject ManagementCommunicationData Science

PhD Researcher

Heidelberg University

Full-time · Heidelberg, Baden-Wurttemberg, DE

Sep 2019 - Jul 2023

Created a new way to construct a catalog of star clusters with machine learning. I created a catalog of over 7000 star clusters from around 1 billion stars in Gaia DR3, which has been cited over 300 times in the first three years since its publication.

PythonMachine LearningCommunicationProject ManagementData Science

Education: 2

Heidelberg University, Germany

PhD, Natural Sciences (Astronomy)

Sep 2019 - Jul 2023

University of Bath, United Kingdom

MPhys, Physics with Astronomy

Sep 2015 - Jun 2019

Projects: 1

The Astrosky Ecosystem

astrosky.eco

Jul 2023 - Present

Building atproto integrations for the astronomy community.

Publications: 19

The selection function of the Gaia DR3 open cluster census

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202557781

Emily L. Hunt, Tristan Cantat-Gaudin, Friedrich Anders, Sagar Malhotra, Lorenzo Spina, Alfred Castro-Ginard, Lorenzo Cavallo

Feb 2026

The Astrosky Ecosystem: An independent online platform for science communication and social networking

arXiv e-prints

Working Paper
doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.16838

Hunt, Emily L., Carpenter, Vincent S., Cook, Kyle W.

Jan 2026

The secret lives of open clusters: A multiwavelength examination of three open clusters

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1017/pasa.2026.10150

Dage, Kristen, Hunt, Emily, Anderson-Baldwin, Jasmine

Jan 2026

How many stars form in compact clusters in the local Milky Way?

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202556366

Alexis L. Quintana, Emily L. Hunt, Hanna Parul

Sep 2025

The completeness of the open cluster census towards the Galactic anticentre

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202452614

Emily L. Hunt, Tristan Cantat-Gaudin, Friedrich Anders, Lorenzo Spina, Lorenzo Cavallo, Alfred Castro-Ginard, Vasily Belokurov, Anthony G. A. Brown, Andrew R. Casey, Ronald Drimmel, Morgan Fouesneau, Sabine Reffert

Jul 2025

Toward the fabric of the Milky Way

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202451866

Sebastian Ratzenböck, João Alves, Emily L. Hunt, Núria Miret-Roig, Stefan Meingast, Torsten Möller

Feb 2025

Non-radial oscillations mimicking a brown dwarf orbiting the cluster giant NGC 4349 No. 127

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450163

Dane Spaeth, Sabine Reffert, Emily L. Hunt, Adrian Kaminski, Andreas Quirrenbach

Sep 2024

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Nearby young star clusters (Swiggum+, 2024)

Publication

Cameren Swiggum, Joao Alves, Sebastian Ratzenböck, Núria Miret Roig, Stefan Meingast, Emily Lauren Hunt

Aug 2024

The golden age of star cluster science: the incredible new discoveries from Gaia and the challenges that remain

EAS2024

Conference Paper

Hunt, Emily

Jul 2024

Unravelling the puzzles of the Milky Way's star clusters with their masses, radii, and dynamics

EAS2024

Conference Paper

Hunt, Emily, Reffert, Sabine

Jul 2024

Mapping the Milky Way with incomplete data: what is the selection function of the cluster census?

EAS2024

Conference Paper

Cantat-gaudin, Tristan, Hunt, Emily, Castro-Ginard, Alfred, Anders, Friedrich, Spina, Lorenzo, Cavallo, Lorenzo

Jul 2024

Most nearby young star clusters formed in three massive complexes

Nature

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07496-9

Swiggum, Cameren, Alves, João, Benjamin, Robert, Ratzenböck, Sebastian, Miret-Roig, Núria, Großschedl, Josefa, Meingast, Stefan, Goodman, Alyssa, Konietzka, Ralf, Zucker, Catherine, Hunt, Emily L., Reffert, Sabine

Jul 2024

Uncovering three past massive star-forming complexes that shaped local interstellar structures

American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts

Conference Abstract

Swiggum, Cameren, Alves, João, Benjamin, Robert, Ratzenböck, Sebastian, Miret-Roig, Núria, Großchedl, Josefa, Meingast, Stefan, Goodman, Alyssa, Konietzka, Ralf, Zucker, Catherine, Hunt, Emily, Reffert, Sabine

Jun 2024

Improving the open cluster census

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202348662

Emily L. Hunt, Sabine Reffert

Jun 2024

Improving the open cluster census

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202346285

Emily L. Hunt, Sabine Reffert

May 2023

Improving the open cluster census

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Journal Article
doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039341

Emily L. Hunt, Sabine Reffert

Feb 2021

Languages: 2

English(Native or bilingual)
German(Limited working)

Skills: 17

Technical

Data ScienceJavaScriptMachine LearningPythonRustSoftware EngineeringSvelteWeb Development

Business

BloggingProject ManagementSocial MediaWriting

Interpersonal

CommunicationMentoringTeaching

Community

Community EngagementOpen Source