Emilie Parent

Post-doctoral Researcher /
Juan de la Cierva Fellow

Education

  • 2017 – 2021 Ph.D., Physics, McGill University, Canada
    Discovery and Study of Radio Pulsars and Fast Transients with the Arecibo and Green Bank Telescopes
    Supervisor: Prof. Victoria Kaspi
  • 2015 – 2017 M.Sc., Physics , McGill University, Canada
    A Search for Long-Period Pulsars with a Fast-Folding Algorithm in the PALFA Survey
    Supervisor: Prof. Victoria Kaspi
  • 2012 – 2015 B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics, Bishop’s University, Canada
    Light-Curves Calibration of Type Ia Supernovae
    Supervisor: Prof. Lorne Nelson
  • 2009 – 2011 Diplôme d’étude collégial en Sciences de la nature, Cégep de Sherbrooke, Canada

Research

  • 2021 – present Postdoctoral researcher, Institute of Space Sciences (ICE–CSIC)
  • 2014 May – Aug Research Assistant – Carnegie Supernova Project, The Carnegie Observatories

Awards

  • 2024 – 2025 Juan de la Cierva Fellowship (CSIC)
  • 2021 Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada – Graduate Student Award of Merit
  • 2019 69th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting – Participant
  • 2018 – 2021 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (NSERC)
  • 2018 Schulich Graduate Fellowship 2018
  • 2017 Bourse de maîtrise du Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQNT)
  • 2016 Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master's (CGS M)
  • 2015 Vice-Chancellor's Prize, Bishop's University 2015
  • 2015 The David Savage Prize in Physics and Mathematics, Bishop's University
  • 2014 Hugh Haugland Prize in Astronomy, Bishop's University
  • 2013 The Faculty Prize in Physics, Bishop's University
  • 2012 – 2015 Richard Tomlinson Scholarship for academic excellence, Bishop's University (3 consecutive years)

Teaching experience

  • 2022 – 2021 (Supervision) Christine Kazantsev (MSc), ENS Paris-Saclay: Timing of double neutron stars
  • 2020 Spring (Supervision) Alexandra Rochon, Collège Sainte-Anne (BSc): PALFA/pulsar timing analysis
  • 2020 Winter (Mentoring) Harper Sewalls, McGill U. (BSc): PALFA/pulsar timing analysis
  • 2020 Summer (Mentoring) Harper Sewalls, McGill U. (BSc): Search for FRBs in Dwarf Galaxies observations
  • 2016 Summer (Mentoring) Mariya Krasteva, Concordia U. (BSc): Implementation of a FFA in PALFA pipeline
  • 2017 – 2018 STEM Education Initiative Fellow, The American Association of Universities
    Project: Rethinking first year physics: a novel approach towards active, exploration-based
    learning in laboratories.
  • 2015 – 2020 Teaching assistant, McGill University
    PHYS 357 (Hons. Quantum Physics), PHYS 342 (Electromagnetic Waves),
    PHYS 214 & PHYS 320 & PHYS 521 (Astrophysics), PHYS 183 (Intro. Astronomy)
  • 2013 – 2015 Teaching assistant, Bishop's University
    PHY 101 (Statistical Methods in Exp. Sciences), PHY 113 (Intro. Astronomy),
    PHY 192b (Electricity and Magnetism 2), MAT 190 (Calculus)

Selected refereed publications

  • Parent, E., Sewalls, H., Freire, P. C. C. et al., Study of 72 Pulsars Discovered in the PALFA Survey: Timing Analysis, Glitch Activity, Emission Variability, and a Pulsar in an Eccentric Binary, Accepted for publication in ApJ, (2021)
  • Parent, E., Chawla, P., Kaspi, V. M., et al., First Discovery of a Fast Radio Burst at 350 MHz by the GBNCC Survey, The Astrophysical Journal, 904, 92P (2020)
  • Ferdman, R. D., Freire, P. C. C., Perera, B. B. P., et al., Asymmetric mass ratios for bright double neutron-star mergers, Nature, 583..211F (2019)
  • Parent, E., Kaspi, V. M., Ransom, S. M., et al., Eight Millisecond Pulsars Discovered in the Arecibo PALFA Survey, The Astrophysical Journal, 886, 148 (2019)
  • Scalzo, R. A., Parent, E., Burns, C., et al., Probing type Ia supernova properties using bolometric light curves from the Carnegie Supernova Project and the CfA , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 483, 628, (2019)
  • Patel, C., Agarwal, D., Bhardwaj, M., et al., PALFA Single-pulse Pipeline: New Pulsars, Rotating Radio Transients, and a Candidate Fast Radio Burst, The Astrophysical Journal, 869, 181 (2018)
  • Burns, C. R., Parent, E., Phillips, M. M., et al., The Carnegie Supernova Project: Absolute Calibration and the Hubble Constant, The Astrophysical Journal, 869, 56 (2018)
  • Parent, E., Kaspi, V. M., Ransom, S. M., et al., The Implementation of a Fast-folding Pipeline for Long-period Pulsar Searching in the PALFA Survey, The Astrophysical Journal, 861,44 (2018)
  • Stovall, K., Freire, P. C. C., Chatterjee, S., et al., PALFA Discovery of a Highly Relativistic Double Neutron Star Binary, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 854, L22 (2018)
  • Scholz, P., Spitler, L. G., Hessels, J. W. T., et al., The Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102: Multi-wavelength Observations and Additional Bursts, The Astrophysical Journal, 833, 177S (2016)

Academic services, experiences and activities

    Project management

  • 2020 – 2021 Chair – PALFA timing program
  • 2020 – 2022 Chair – GBNCC collaboration

    • Committee & council representation

  • 2023 – 2025 Chair of the ICE-CSIC Equity Committee
  • 2017 – 2020 Grad. Student Representative, McGill Space Institute Board
  • 2016 – 2021 Grad. Student Representative, Conseil du Centre de Recherche en Astrophysique du Québec
  • 2013 – 2015 Bishop’s Faculty of Sciences Representative Student & Recruitment Team Member
  • Group Review Convener – Graphos Fellowship Writing Support, McGill University Writing Centre
  • Regular Referee for The Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Successful proposals

  • Green Bank Telescope (GBT):
    • Pinpointing onset of radio pulsations in new transitional pulsar; 23A-367, 23B-184, 24A-172, 24B-027, 25A-195 (30+ hrs)
    • Completion of the GBT All-Sky 350-MHz Pulsar Survey: 21B-261, 22B-173 (400 hrs)
  • Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST):
    • Chasing FRBs from Active Magnetars: Simultaneous Radio and X-Ray Monitoring; PT22-82, PT23-7, PT24-30 (14 hrs)
    • Pinpointing the onset of radio pulsations in a new transitional millisecond pulsar candidate; PT23-103, PT24-87 (3 hrs)
    • Timing of two double neutron star systems and two binary millisecond pulsars (24 hrs)
  • Arecibo:
    • Confirming the fastest pulsars found in the PALFA Survey: P3313 (15 hrs)
    • Timing program for new discoveries from the PALFA Survey: P2789 (90 hrs)
  • Compute Canada Federation: Co-PI for ID-3009 (500 core-years of HPC for processing of PALFA+GBNCC data)

Selected outreach activities

    Outreach positions and activities

  • 2017 – 2020: Lead organizer and host of Astronomy on Tap MTL (25+ events, initiated the series in Montréal)
  • 2016 – 2018: President of AstroMcGill's Steering Committee, AstroMcGill
  • 2016 – 2018: Coordinator for public lectures series – Public AstroNights
  • 2016: Professor for a "université populaire" 5-lectures series (Mystères cosmiques, UPop Montréal)

    • Volunteering

  • 2016 – 2017: Volunteer for McGil Space Explorers: program in which a physicist visits a grade 4-6 classroom multiple times throughout a school year to learn science concepts through experiments
  • 2016 – present: Mentor for Academos: cyber-mentoring program to support and guide high-school students in their career choice process
  • 2015 – 2016: Scientist consultant for Eclairs de Sciences: assisting elementary school teachers in their professional development in science and technology.