Background

Valérie Van Grootel has a double civil engineering degree,  awarded by the University of Liège and SUPAÉRO, the school in Toulouse specializing in aeronautics and space, where she spent two years of her study cycle. As if this double degree were not enough, she then took advantage of her time at SUPAÉRO to do a DEA in astrophysics (2003-2004). “When I was in Toulouse I decided to go into astrophysics rather than opting for a career in engineering”, explains Valérie.

In October 2005, Valérie Van Grootel returned to the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse to do a doctoral thesis on the asteroseismology of extreme horizontal branch stars. Her thesis was completed with the joint supervision of the University of Toulouse and the University of Montreal. At the end of 2008, her PhD work was awarded the Pierre-Maury prize which the Academy of Science, Inscriptions and Humanities of Toulouse annually grants to the author of the best doctoral thesis in the area of aeronautics and aerospatial (including astrophysics).

A post-doctoral grant from the CNES allowed her to prolong her research at Toulouse by two years. Finally, having left almost ten years ago, Valérie Van Grootel  returned to the University of Liege in October 2010, to begin a term as a postdoctoral researcher at the FNRS. She works in the Stellar Astrophysics and Asteroseismology division of the department of Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography at the University of Liège.