Team → Tim Lichtenberg

Dr. Tim Lichtenberg (he/him)

Tim works as Assistant Professor at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute of the University of Groningen, where he leads the Forming Worlds Lab. He investigates the formation and evolution of rocky planets in order to embed the birth and life cycle of terrestrial worlds in an integrated picture. Ultimately, he wants to understand the planetary environmental conditions that led to the origin of life on the early Earth, and how widespread such places are in our galaxy.

The research of the Forming Worlds Lab is embedded within the Alien Earths, AEThER, Large Interferometer for Exoplanets, and PRELIFE research collaborations, and supported by the Branco Weiss Foundation, the European Research Council (ERC StG ‘MagmaWorlds’), the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, and the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen.

Research Positions

Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen
Tenure track Assistant Professor · Branco Weiss Foundation Research Fellow
10/2022 –

Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford
Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life Postdoctoral Fellow
Project: Geodynamic regimes during planetogenesis
10/2019 – 09/2022

Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford
Swiss National Science Foundation Early Postdoc.Mobility Fellow
Project: Linking interior-atmosphere regimes to planetary accretion
08/2018 – 09/2019

Education

Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Dr.sc. ETH Zurich / planetary physics
Thesis: Thermal Evolution of Forming Planets: Isotope Enrichment, Differentiation & Volatile Retention
09/2014 – 07/2018

Department of Physics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
M.Sc. Physics / specialisation in astronomy and geophysics
Thesis: Modeling gravitational instabilities in compact and massive protoplanetary disks with adaptive mesh refinement techniques (grade: 1.0)
09/2012 – 08/2014

Peking University (北京大学), Beijing, P. R. China
Semester abroad, chinese language and culture
09/2012 – 01/2013

Department of Physics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany
B.Sc. Physics / specialisation in astronomy
Thesis: Constraining Exoplanet Characteristics with Asteroseismology (grade: 1.0)
09/2009 – 08/2012

Wilhelmsgymnasium Kassel, Germany
Abitur 2008; military service 2008–2009 (Schwarzenborn, Germany)
– 2009

Funding & Awards

Honours & Awards

Grants & Fellowships

19 grants and fellowships in total, incl. 12 as PI (>€2.5M), 4 as Co-I

  • Computing Time on National Computer Facilities, Small Compute grant EINF-19723 (535'000 SBU on the Snellius supercomputer, 50'000 CPU hours on the SURF Research Cloud, Pilot for the Interra Project exoplanet simulation ensemble on Snellius), Dutch Research Council (NWO) & SURF, PI, 09/2026
  • Conference support grants for Rocky Worlds IV in 01/2026, Dutch Research Council (NWO), SRON, Netherlands Platform for Planetary Science, Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds, PI, 2025
  • AEThER Collaboration, Sloan Foundation, Co-I, 07/2025
  • European Research Council’s (ERC) Starting Grant MagmaWorlds (€1.5M), PI, 09/2025
  • Computing Time on National Computer Facilities, Small Compute grant EINF-12464 (20'000 SBU on the Snellius supercomputer, PROTEUS: An Adaptive Numerical Framework to Simulate Lava Exoplanets), Dutch Research Council (NWO) & SURF, PI, 01/2025
  • Dutch Research Council (NWO) Consortium Grant (€329'065 out of €6.7M in total, PRELIFE - Pathways, Reactions, and Environments leading to LIFE), work package leader, Co-I, 11/2024
  • NOVA Consortium Grant (LIFE: Mid-infrared detection of biosignatures in the atmospheres of terrestrial exoplanets), PI: van der Tak (fte + cash € 249'000), Co-I, 07/2024
  • Open eScience Early Career Project PROTEUS (€134'000, An Adaptive Numerical Framework to Simulate Lava Exoplanets), Netherlands eScience Center, PI, 12/2023
  • Workshop grant for Rocky Worlds Discussions ($2'000), Meteoritical Society, 02/2023
  • Faculty Research Grant, Faculty of Science and Engineering (€150'000), University of Groningen, PI, 12/2022
  • Research Fellowship of the Branco Weiss Foundation (CHF 500'000, Molten Exoplanets as a Window into the Earliest Earth), PI, 08/2022
  • A-rated ERC Starting Grant Proposal (reserve list), European Research Council, 06/2022
  • Conference support grants for Rocky Worlds II in 07/2022 (£8'000 + $5'000), Royal Astronomical Society, The Meteoritical Society, Kavli Institute for Cosmology, PI, 05/2021
  • Non-stipendiary Junior Research Fellowship, St Cross College, University of Oxford, PI, 06/2019
  • Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life Postdoctoral Fellowship ($276'000, Geodynamic Regimes during Planetogenesis), Simons Foundation, PI, 12/2018
  • Bernoulli postdoctoral fellowship (not started), University of Oxford & University of Bern, 03/2018
  • Early Postdoc.Mobility fellowship (CHF 77'650, Linking Interior-Atmosphere Regimes to Planetary Accretion), Swiss National Science Foundation, PI, 12/2017
  • Conference support grant for Water during planet formation and evolution in 02/2018 (CHF 10'000), University of Zurich Graduate Campus, Co-I, 04/2017
  • MERAC Funding and Travel Award (CHF 5'000), Swiss Society for Astrophysics & Astronomy, PI, 10/2016

Teaching & Mentoring

Postdoc Mentoring

4 mentored postdocs in total, incl. 3 with personal fellowships (2 SNSF, 1 JSPS), 1 ERC-funded

  • Patrick Bos, Senior Research Software Engineer (ERC Starting Grant MagmaWorlds), Kapteyn Institute, 03/2026–
  • Mara Attia, SNSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Kapteyn Institute, 05/2025–
  • Tadahiro Kimura, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Kapteyn Institute, 06/2024–03/2026
  • Rob Spaargaren, SNSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Kapteyn Institute, 12/2023–11/2025

Student Mentoring

43 supervised students in total, incl. 7 PhD, 10 MSc, 16 BSc theses, 10 projects/internships

Lectures and Courses

17 courses in total, incl. 11 as lecturer, 6 as teaching/lab assistant

  • Planetary Systems, BSc course, Kapteyn Institute, lecturer (~40 students), 09/2026–11/2026
  • Exoplanets, MSc course, Kapteyn Institute, lecturer (~20 students), 02/2026–04/2026
  • Planetary Systems, BSc course, Kapteyn Institute, lecturer (~50 students), 09/2025–11/2025
  • Exoplanets, MSc course, Kapteyn Institute, lecturer (~20 students), 10/2024–02/2025
  • Star and Planet Formation, MSc course, Kapteyn Institute, co-lecturer (~30 students), 02/2025–04/2025
  • Exoplanets, MSc course, Kapteyn Institute, lecturer (~20 students), 10/2023–02/2024
  • Hands-on Numerical Astrophysics School for Planet Formation Sciences, summer school, DFG priority programme 1992 “Exoplanet Diversity”, Rauenberg, lecturer (~30 students), 08/2023
  • Star and Planet Formation, MSc course, Kapteyn Institute, co-lecturer (~30 students), 02/2023–04/2023
  • Life and Information, BSc seminar, University of Groningen, guest lecturer (~30 students), 11/2022
  • Origin and role of volatiles in the early solar system and planets, block course, University of Bayreuth, lecturer (~20 students), 01/2020
  • Planetary Physics and Chemistry & Geophysics II, ETH Zurich, substitute lecturer (~50 students), 09/2017–05/2018
  • Physics I as minor subject, ETH Zurich, exercise/exam design (~100 students), 09/2015–02/2016
  • Physics I+II as minor subject, ETH Zurich, teaching assistant (~30 students), 02/2014–02/2015
  • Scientific computing, Göttingen University, teaching assistant (~20 students), 09/2013–02/2014
  • Basic physics lab course, Göttingen University, lab assistant (~10 students), 09/2013–02/2014
  • Introduction to Astro- and Geophysics, Göttingen University, teaching assistant (~20 students), 03/2013–08/2013
  • Basic physics lab course, Göttingen University, lab assistant (~10 students), 09/2012–02/2013

Advanced Teaching & Research Training Courses

Teaching, Education & Supervision

Research Schools

Outreach & Public Engagement

50+ outreach activities, incl. 14 media interviews & press features, 4 public talks & 2 panels, 16 blog posts & videos, 22 peer-reviewed Astrobites articles

Media Interviews & Press

Public Talks & Panels

  • Public talk Formation and Evolution of Terrestrial Worlds, DOT Planetarium Groningen, 05/2024
  • Public talk Entstehung und Entwicklung terrestrischer Welten (~100 attendees), Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, DE, 05/2024
  • Panel member, Golden Webinars in Astrophysics: Lynnae Quick, Cryovolcanism on Ocean Worlds, 10/2021
  • Panel member, Golden Webinars in Astrophysics: Frances Westall, Biosignatures and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life, 10/2021
  • Public talk Wasser, Wüste, oder Lava: wie entstehen erdähnliche Planeten?, Planetarium Göttingen, published on Urknall, Weltall und das Leben (>34'500 views), 11/2020
  • Public talk Distant worlds in the computer: planet formation via gravitational instabilities, Göttingen University, DE, 03/2014

Blog Posts & Videos

Blog articles and paper summary videos published on Medium/Forming Worlds, YouTube, and NCCR PlanetS.

Other Activities

  • Letters to a Pre-Scientist pen pal, 2019–2020
  • Expedition Solar System, Focus Terra science exhibition, ETH Zurich, 2018–2019
  • Figures and media for popular science article Exotische Welten in Sterne und Weltraum, 08/2015
  • Zurich Scientifica 2015, Licht und Astronomie, public science exhibition, ETH Zurich, 09/2015
  • Astrobites reddit Ask-Me-Anything, 06/2015
  • Q&A visit, primary school, Zurich Seefeld, 06/2015
  • 3D rendering video for Bovino et al. (2014), ApJL 790, L35 (phys.org, INAF, HPC Wire), 07/2014

Community Service

Web of Science Review Profile

External/Co-Examination & Defence Committees

24 examinations in total, incl. 7 PhD, 2 MSc, 15 BSc

  • Robin Malaca, “Damping Oscillations in Non-LTE Models”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Floris van der Tak, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2026
  • Mariasole De Amicis, “The Atmospheric Composition of WASP-39b: A Broad-Wavelength Band Analysis with JWST”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Quentin Changeat, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2026
  • Anastasia Perrotta, “Revisiting the target selection metric for the Ariel telescope”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Quentin Changeat, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2026
  • Wout Sijtsma, “Testing the validity of the Shallow Water Equations in Hot Jupiter modeling using the pseudo-spectral PDE solver Dedalus 3”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Quentin Changeat, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2026
  • Sacha Veenstra, “Thermal dissociation and atmospheric structure: how do they affect the retrieved atmospheric composition of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-18b?”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Quentin Changeat, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2026
  • Aditya Arabhavi, “Unraveling the Planet-Forming Materials Around Young Stars with JWST”, PhD thesis, supervisor: Inga Kamp, University of Groningen, NL, 09/2025
  • Zalán Novák, “Rotational Excitation of Interstellar OCS: Non-LTE Line Analysis and Temperature-Density Diagnostics Using RADEX”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Floris van der Tak, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2025
  • Emma F. van der Vinne, “Atmospheric retrieval of Jupiter, observed as an exoplanet, using the TauREx code”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Quentin Changeat, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2025
  • Tristan Popken, “Accelerated chemistry for exoplanet atmospheres via grid interpolation”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Quentin Changeat, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2025
  • Fran Štimac, “Unreliable Pixel Correction in JWST Exoplanet Data: Identifying, classifying, and correcting for unreliable pixels on the NIRSpec detector”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Quentin Changeat, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2025
  • Jesse Reurink, “A Small Population Study Across the Radius Valley using JWST NIRSpec G395H”, MSc thesis, supervisor: Quentin Changeat, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2025
  • Mark Oosterloo, “Tracking CHNOS during the early stages of planet formation with a model-laboratory approach”, PhD thesis, supervisors: Inga Kamp, Wim van Westrenen, University of Groningen, NL, 01/2025
  • Francisco Ardévol Martinez, “Machine learning for exoplanet characterisation in the JWST era”, PhD thesis, supervisors: Inga Kamp, Paul I. Palmer, Michiel Min, University of Groningen, NL, 10/2024
  • Zara Siyal, “Comparison and characterisation of properties of exoplanets and their host stars”, BSc thesis, supervisors: Amina Helmi, Tom Callingham, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2024
  • Tycho Hebels, “The Effects of Dust Grain Surface Reactions on the HDO/H₂O Ice Ratio in Protoplanetary Disks”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Inga Kamp, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2024
  • Kevin de Man, “Radiation processing of grains in protoplanetary disks”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Inga Kamp, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2024
  • Ioannis Panagiotou, “Evolution of the pressure equilibrium and condensation in idealised simulations”, BSc thesis, supervisors: Filippo Fraternali, A. Dutta, University of Groningen, NL, 07/2024
  • Keavin Moore, “Coupled Models of Water on Terrestrial Planets Orbiting M-Dwarfs”, PhD thesis, supervisor: Nicolas B. Cowan, McGill University, CA, 12/2023
  • Roos H. Voorhoeve, “Enhancing and expanding the applicability of ReverseRADEX for accurate astrophysical insights”, BSc thesis, supervisor: Floris van der Tak, University of Groningen, NL, 12/2023
  • Bayron Armando Portilla Revelo, “Closing the gap between theory and observations of planet-forming disks with radiative transfer models”, PhD thesis, supervisors: Inga Kamp, Ewine van Dishoeck, University of Groningen, NL, 12/2023
  • Nynke Visser, “The influence of the ice-albedo feedback on the long term carbon cycle of Earth-like exoplanets”, MSc thesis, supervisors: Inga Kamp, Mark Oosterloo, Dennis Höning, University of Groningen, NL, 08/2023
  • Raymon P. Ferdinand, “Outgassing and Exoplanet Atmospheres: A study of the effects of outgassing on the temperature and composition of the secondary atmospheres of rocky exoplanets”, BSc thesis, supervisors: Floris van der Tak, Michiel Min, University of Groningen, NL, 06/2023
  • Yapeng Zhang, “Isotopes and the characterization of extrasolar planets”, PhD thesis, supervisors: Ignas Snellen, Laura Kreidberg, Leiden Observatory, NL, 06/2023
  • Mantas Zilinskas, “Lava Worlds: Characterising atmospheres of impossible nature”, PhD thesis, supervisors: Yamila Miguel, Ignas Snellen, Leiden Observatory, NL, 05/2023

Refereeing & Panel Service

AGU Advances, Astronomical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astrophysical Journal, Astrophysical Journal Letters, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Elements, Icarus, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Nature, Nature Astronomy, Nature Communications, Planetary Science Journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Science, Science Advances

Belgian Research Foundation (FWO), Cambridge University College Fellowships, Dutch Research Council (NWO), European Research Council (ERC), Max Planck Society (MPG), NASA Emerging Worlds program, NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), US National Science Foundation (NSF)

National & International Collaborations

4 observing programmes with 268.3 hr of telescope time, incl. 1 as PI; member of 9 consortia and research programmes

Telescope Time

Consortia & Research Programmes

Conference & Workshop Organisation

30 events in total, incl. 8 as main organiser

Academic Associations