Loïc Albert

Loïc Albert is a research scientist specializing in observation and instrumentation. He is currently an instrumental scientist for the Canadian instrument NIRISS (Imager and Spectrograph), which will flies aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2018. Loïc obtained his doctorate in 2006 from the Université de Montréal, completing a project to search for brown dwarfs in the solar neighborhood and build an infrared imager/spectrograph.

After 5 years as astronomer-in-residence at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, where he searched for cold brown dwarfs and wandering planets among other things, he returned to Montreal to take part in the design of NIRISS, an instrument capable of obtaining the spectrum of terrestrial-type exoplanets.

Loïc Albert’s main research focus is the spectral characterization of exoplanets using NIRISS onboard JWST. For the time being, this consists of numerical simulations taking into account all the noise effects attributable to the instrumentation, and laboratory experiments to establish the basis of this instrumental noise. After the launch of the JWST telescope, this will be based on real observations. He is still interested in brown dwarfs, those close neighbors of planets, through the determination of their temperature and luminosity by observing their infrared light.