Hi, I'm Gemma!
Astronomy PhD Student
at the University of Hertfordshire
About Me
Hi! I'm Gemma and I'm a final-year astronomy PhD student at the University of Hertfordshire. My PhD project is called "the exoplanet brown dwarf connection – ultracool companions to Gaia stars", and I've also done some work with the GUCDS team. The main research area that I'm interested in is ultracool dwarfs, but I'm also interested in exoplanets (and always appreciate the pretty pictures of star-forming regions and galaxies!) I graduated from Hertfordshire with my undergraduate MPhys degree in 2022, with 1st Class Honours, and have stayed at Herts to continue my research journey!
Besides astronomy, I love travelling, motorsport, my cat Beyblade and my cars (Toby, Bingo and Sprout). I studied at Oklahoma State University for a year during my undergraduate degree, and I'm excited to have the opportunity to attend conferences in new places!
Information
Name Gemma Cheng
Email [email protected]
Address Centre for Astrophysics Research,
University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, AL10 9AB
Member
PhD Student
MPhys Astrophysics (Hons)
Member
Current Research
T-Dwarf Companions to Gaia Primary Stars
Finding T-dwarfs in wide binary systems with Gaia-detected stars to build a better picture of the physics of T-dwarfs.
Candidate Halo T-Dwarfs
Looking in the southern skies for potential halo T-dwarfs in the galactic cap regions.
WISE Deep Imaging
Using deep WISE stacks to find new very-late-type brown dwarfs near the detection limit.
My Papers
Coming Soon...
GUCDS VI: Spectral Types and Properties of 51 Ultracool Dwarfs
G. Cheng, H.R.A. Jones, R.L. Smart, F. Marocco, W.J. Cooper, A. Burgasser, J.C. Beamin,
D.J. Pinfield, J. Gagné, L. Moranta
2025, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 538, Issue 4, pp.3144-3176
Talks & Conferences
UH Lunch Talk
UH Lunch Talk
European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2025
Finding T-Dwarf Companions to Gaia Primary Stars
New Frontiers: a Student-Led GradNet Conference
Finding T-Dwarf Companions to Gaia Primary Stars
Cool Stars 22
Finding T-Dwarf Companions to Gaia Primary Stars
University of Hertfordshire Lunch Talk
Finding T-Dwarf Companions to Gaia Primary Stars
National Astronomy Meeting 2023
Spectral Types and Properties of 51 Ultracool Dwarf Candidates
The Imitation Game: a Student-Led GradNet Conference
Spectroscopic Classification of 50 Gaia Ultracool Dwarfs
University of Hertfordshire Lunch Talk
Spectroscopic Classification of 50 Gaia Ultracool Dwarfs
