Past MERAC awards

2024 (first call): 3 awardees

Helena KUHNLE ETHZ James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) characterisation of the atmospheres of gas giant extrasolar planets
Romain MEYER UniGE The Host Galaxies and Environment of the First Quasars
Christina KONSTANTOPOULOU UniGE Probing the chemical enrichment of the ISM using a novel dust depletion method on simulated spectra of quasars

2023 (second call): 6 awardees

Caroline HASLEBACHER UniBE Advancing the science strategy for the Europa Imaging System
Erik MEIER VALDES UniBE Unraveling the nature of the super-Earth 55 Cnc e: Magnetic star-planet interaction and stellar contamination
Oliver SCHIB UniBE The Formation of the Solar System in the Context of Planetary Population Synthesis
Sabina RADUCAN UniBE Impact Cratering Studies on Rubble Pile Asteroids
Mengyuan XIAO UniGE Unveiling the dark side of the Cosmic star-formation history
Rui MARQUES CHAVES UniBE Ultra-Violet (UV)-bright star-forming galaxies

2023 (first call): 4 awardees

Jérôme BETRISEY UniGE Quantifying the impact of stellar activity on the stellar parameters determined with asteroseismology
Nicolas KAUFMANN UniBE Coupling Self Colliding Planetesimals to Dust Models for Forming Planets
Thibault GAREL UniGE The observability of the cosmic web in emission with the BlueMUSE 3D spectrograph
Abhjit BENDRE EPFL Observational Signatures Galactic Dynamos

2022 (second call): 3 awardees

Anna LUEBER UniBE Rethinking brown dwarf atmosphere research: Retrieve more precise information by combining ground- and space-based data sets
Julia ROQUETTE UniGE An observational search for environmental feedback on rotation in the Carina Nebulae Complex
Kathryn Dawn JONES UniBE Observing hot and ultra-hot exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope

2022 (first call): 1 awardee

Franziska ZEUNER IRSOL High-precision spectropolarimetric measurements with enhanced accuracy for probing the unresolved solar photospheric magnetic field

2021 (second call): 4 awardees

Laia BARRUFET UniGE Intermediate redshift ULIRGs: bridging the gap between starburst and main sequence galaxies
Nicolas LONGEARD EPFL Probing the faintest galaxies in the Universe
Romain LUCCHESI EPFL The first generations of stars in the Local Group
Sébastien MARTINET UNIGE From the Most Massive Stars to the Most Luminous Supernovae

2021 (first call): 2 awardees

Chloe FISHER UniBE Combining Spectra of Exoplanetary Atmospheres Using Machine Learning
Josephine KERUTT UniGE Comparing Observations and Simulations of Overdensities around LAEs at the EoR

2020 (second call): 2 awardees

Gaël BULDGEN UniGE Studying the internal structure of red giants with novel asteroseismic
techniques
Polychronis PATAPIS ETHZ Commissioning of the Mid Infrared Instrument on board the James Webb Space Telescope

2020 (first call): 2 awardees

Andrea GUZMAN MESA UniBE What is the information content of JWST transmission spectra?
Haruka KUSAKABE UniGE Mapping HSC-detected EMPGSs with MUSE
2019 (second call): 4 awardees
Gianluca CASTIGNANI EPFL Galaxy evolution in clusters
Leonardo DOS SANTOS UNIGE Frontiers of observational techniques to study atmospheric evolution of exoplanets
Mahsa SANATI EPFL The first stars in the first galaxies: concerning dwarfs with the reionization epoch
Rohit SHARMA FHNW Search for weak solar flare in an active region
2019 (first call): 4 awardees
Thibaut GAREL UniGE Probing the Epoch of Reionization with Lyman-α in the SPHINX simulation
Michele GINOLFI UniGE The Baryon Cycle driving Galaxy Evolution
Paula SARKIS UniBE The Radius Anomaly of Hot Jupiters: Linking Observations and Theory
Jennifer SCHOBER EPFL Chiral MHD & the origin of cosmic magnetism
2018 (second call): 4 awardees
Martin JUTZI UniBE Japanese Hayabusa 2 space mission:
exploration of the C-type asteroid Ryugu
Carmela LARDO EPFL The Chemistry of the Multiple Populations
Julia Victoria SEIDEL UniGE Revealing thermospheres of exoplanets via atmospheric retrieval
Marko SESTOVIC UniBE First estimate for the true occurrence rate for planets around ultracool stars, including for earth-like rocky planets such as TRAPPIST-1
2018 (first call): 2 awardees
Baptiste LAVIE UniGE Atmospheric escape from the closest Super-­Earth
Shang-Min TSAI UniBE Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics in Exoplanets
2017 (second call): 3 awardees
Maria Nikolayevna DROZDOVSKAYA UniBE Roots of Life — Astrobiological Imprints in Cimet and Planet-Forming Material
Loïc HAUSAMMANN EPFL High Resolution Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics of Dwarf Galaxies Simulations Including Gravity
Lia SARTORI ETHZ A universal model for active galactic nuclei variability
2017 (first call): 4 awardees
Jean COUPON UniGE The environment of X-ray selected AGNs up to z ∼ 1.5
Cyril GEORGY UniGE Next generation models of massive stars
Anna WEIGEL ETHZ Phenomenological models of AGN
Johanna WOO ETHZ Galaxy quenching
2016 (second call): 2 awardees
Stéphane de BARROS UniGE Pave the way to the James Webb Space Telescope era: multi-wavelength analysis of high-redshift galaxies to understand cosmic reionization and galaxy mass assembly
Tim LICHTENBERG ETHZ Volatile degassing from terrestrial planet precursors
2016 (first call): 3 awardees
David HARVEY EPFL Observing the dynamics of dark matter with strong and weak gravitational lensing
Joao Manuel MENDOÇA UniBE THOR: A New and Flexible 3D Dynamical Model to Explore Planetary Atmospheres
Kyuseok OH ETHZ The BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey
2015 (second call): 4 awardees
Claudia CICONE   ALMA studies of molecular gas in galaxies
Tassos FRAGOS   The origin of stellar-mass black hole spin
Michael KOSS   AGN host galaxy studies using hard X-rays
Matej MALIK   HELIOS: A new open-source radiative transfer code
2015 (first call): 3 awardees
Caroline DORN   Characterizing rocky exoplanets: interior structure and tectonic regimes
Daniel KITZMANN   The unstable CO2 feedback cycle on ocean planets
Kimihiko NAKAJIMA   Galaxy Evolution and Cosmic Reionization Revealed by NIR Spectroscopy of Distant Galaxies
2014 (second call): 5 awardees
Julian ADAMEK   Relativistic effects in the nonlinear evolution of cosmic structure
Sylvia EKSTRÖM UniGE Stellar populations, from theory to observation
Elena GAVAGNIN   Star cluster formation through merger of sub-clusters
Matthew NICHOLS   Studying the evolution of dwarf galaxies as they become satellites
Julian VENTURINI   Atmospheric enrichment during planet formation: recomputing the core-accretion model with more realistic planet compositions
2014 (first call): 2 awardees
Antonio CAVA   SHARDS and WINGS surveys: benchmarks for evolutionary studies of galaxies and galaxy clusters
Aline VIDOTTO UniGE The impact of stellar winds on planets: characterisation of the interplanetary medium
2013 (second call): 3 awardees
Martin JUTZI   Japanese Hayabusa 2 space mission: study of the effects of a small Carry-on Impactor
Ulysse MARBOEUF   Gas trapping in amorphous water ice
Anaïs RASSAT EPFL Cosmology with the clustering statistics and number counts of galaxy-scale moderate lensing
2013 (first call): 3 awardees
Anahi GRANADA UniGE Rapidly Rotating Stellar Populations
José GROH UniGE Massive stars through cosmic times
Anne VERHAMME UniGE Lyman alpha radiation transfer in hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation and evolution