DrMarie Van de Sande

Marie is an astrochemist interested in the chemistry throughout the outflows of evolved stars, in particular asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. She develops chemical models for complex circumstellar environments and uses them to interpret observations of AGB stars. She contributed to the Rate22 release of the UMIST Database for Astrochemistry.  

 

Marie obtained her PhD in 2018 at KU Leuven and stayed on as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). In 2021, she moved to the University of Leeds as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow. In 2023, she moved to Leiden University as an Oort Fellow. She was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2025 and moved to UCD as assistant professor in 2026. Her Starting Grant ASHES aims to reveal how dust formed by AGB stars is shaped by (sub)stellar companions and outflow dynamics.