# Emily Hunt (@emily.space)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/emily.space
Headline: Astronomy postdoc, data & software enthusiast
Location: Vienna, Vienna, Austria

## About

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.

## Experience

- **Postdoc at University of Vienna** (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.
- **PhD Researcher at Heidelberg University** (2019 – 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.
- **Postdoc at Heidelberg University** (2023 – 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.
- **Postdoc at Max Planck Institute for Astronomy** (2025 – 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.

## Education

- **Heidelberg University, Germany** — PhD, Natural Sciences (Astronomy) (2019 – 2023)
- **University of Bath, United Kingdom** — MPhys, Physics with Astronomy (2015 – 2019)

## Skills

- Python
- Svelte
- Teaching
- JavaScript
- Machine Learning
- Communication
- Writing
- Blogging
- Web Development
- Software Engineering
- Open Source
- Project Management
- Project Management
- Project Management
- Data Science
- Project Management
- Data Science
- Rust
- Social Media
- Community Engagement
- Mentoring
- Data Science
- Data Science

## Projects

- **The Astrosky Ecosystem** — https://astrosky.eco
  Building atproto integrations for the astronomy community.

## Publications

- The selection function of the Gaia DR3 open cluster census — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202557781)
- The Astrosky Ecosystem: An independent online platform for science communication and social networking — arXiv e-prints
- The secret lives of open clusters: A multiwavelength examination of three open clusters — Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
- How many stars form in compact clusters in the local Milky Way? — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202556366)
- A bird’s eye view of stellar evolution through populations of variable stars in Galactic open clusters — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202555111)
- The completeness of the open cluster census towards the Galactic anticentre — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202452614)
- Toward the fabric of the Milky Way — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202451866)
- Non-radial oscillations mimicking a brown dwarf orbiting the cluster giant NGC 4349 No. 127 — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202450163)
- VizieR Online Data Catalog: Nearby young star clusters (Swiggum+, 2024) (https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/f92fc469-41f1-49b8-b530-05d7e2ae8c65)
- The golden age of star cluster science: the incredible new discoveries from Gaia and the challenges that remain — EAS2024
- Unravelling the puzzles of the Milky Way's star clusters with their masses, radii, and dynamics — EAS2024
- Mapping the Milky Way with incomplete data: what is the selection function of the cluster census? — EAS2024
- Most nearby young star clusters formed in three massive complexes — Nature
- Uncovering three past massive star-forming complexes that shaped local interstellar structures — American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Improving the open cluster census — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202348662)
- Improving the open cluster census — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202346285)
- Improving the census of open clusters in the Milky Way with data from Gaia — Heidelberg University Library (https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/id/eprint/33588)
- A more complete and accurate open cluster census with Gaia EDR3 (https://zenodo.org/record/5566411)
- Improving the open cluster census — Astronomy & Astrophysics (https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039341)

## Languages

- English (native)
- German (limited_working)

## Other profiles

- orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5555-8058
- github: https://github.com/emilyhunt
- website: https://emily.space