Cheryl Lau, PhD

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Employment

2026- Postdoctoral Research Fellow in theoretical astrophysics

National Center for Theoretical Sciences (Physics Division), National Taiwan University, Taipei, TW
Research group: Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics (TCA) Thematic Group (TG2.3)
Research expertise: Star formation and stellar feedback, interstellar medium, computational hydrodynamics
Collaborators: Prof. Yueh-Ning Lee, Prof. Min-Kai Lin

Education

2021-2025 PhD in computational astrophysics

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK
Supervisor: Prof. Ian A. Bonnell
Thesis title: The Shocking Stars - Numerical modelling of stellar feedback in Giant Molecular Clouds
Publicly available at the St Andrews thesis repository
Examiners: Prof. Matthew Bate (external), Prof. Moira Jardine (internal)

2018-2020 MSc by Research in astrophysics

Department of Physics, University of York, England, UK
Supervisor: Dr. Emily Brunsden
Thesis title: Stellar rotation formalisms of γ Doradus stars from gravity-mode period spacings
Publicly available at the White Rose thesis repository
Examiners: Prof. Catherine Lovekin (external), Prof. Phil Lightfoot (internal)

2015-2018 BSc in physics with astrophysics

Department of Physics, University of York, England, UK
Supervisors: Dr. Chris Murphy (academic), Dr. Emily Brunsden (FYP)
First-class honours with Distinction (85%)
Dissertation title: Estimating distances to type I Cepheid variables using the Period-Luminosity relation with visual photometry

Publications

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9292-5996

Grants & Awards

2024   SPHERIC 2024 (Berlin) 2nd-place Libersky Prize for research on SPH

2021   UKRI STFC training grant PhD full scholarship

2019   University of York Departmental scholarship for MSc studies

2018   University of York 1st-place Goodwin Prize for best final-year project

Conference talks

2025 June   SPHERIC 2025, Barcelona (Contributed)

2025 June   Phantom workshop 2025, Grenoble (Invited)

2025 May     Bally Fest, Budapest (Contributed)

2024 Sep     UK galactic star formation, Armagh (Contributed)

2024 Sep     German Astronomical Society meeting 2024, Cologne (Contributed x2)

2024 June   Research visit to the Theoretical Astrophysics Cologne group, Cologne (Invited)

2024 June   SPHERIC 2024, Berlin (Contributed)

2024 Feb     ECOGAL winter school, Les Houches (Contributed)

2023 Mar     Phantom workshop 2023, Online (Contributed)

2019 July     NAM 2019, Lancaster (Contributed poster)

Teaching

At University of St Andrews

I worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the following undergraduate courses:

2025 Spring   3rd-year Computational astrophysics (lab demonstrator)

2024 Winter   1st-year Astronomy and Astrophysics (tutor)

2024 Spring   3rd-year Computational astrophysics (lab demonstrator)

2023 Winter   1st-year Astronomy and Astrophysics (tutor)

2023 Spring   3rd-year Computational astrophysics (lab demonstrator)

2022 Winter   1st-year Astronomy and Astrophysics (lab demonstrator)

2022 Spring   2nd-year Astronomy and Astrophysics (lab demonstrator)

2021 Winter   1st-year Astronomy and Astrophysics (lab demonstrator)

I also assissted/co-supervised the following MSc project students with Prof. Ian Bonnell:

2024 Spring   Pavani Kumar

2024 Spring   Jesus Miguel Yulo Asuncion

2024 Spring   Daniel Maske

2023 Spring   Florence Harper (now as Robin Harper)

At University of York

I worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the following undergraduate courses:

2020 Spring   2nd-year Mathematics (problem class tutor)

2020 Spring   1st-year Python lab (lab demonstrator)

2020 Spring   1st-year Vibrations and waves (problem class tutor)

2020 Spring   1st-year Electromagnetism (problem class tutor)

2020 Spring   1st-year Mapping the universe (problem class tutor)

2019 Winter   2nd-year Python lab for astrophysics students (lab demonstrator)

2019 Winter   3rd-year Advanced astrophysics laboratory (lab demonstrator)

2019 Spring   2nd-year Electromagnetism and optics (problem class tutor)