Pedro Lacerda's homepage

For the past twenty years, I have been employed in academia in five different countries, doing research in astronomy and astrophysics, and teaching mathematics, physics and astronomy.

I am a member of the Institute of Astrophysics in Portugal aince 2022, and work at NL Space Campus in the Netherlands as scientific coordinator and with the ESA Space Solutions team at Instituto Pedro Nunes in Coimbra. I am part of the ESA Comet Interceptor science working group.

Education

• MSc in Physics, 2000, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• PhD in Astrophysics, 2005, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Recent Papers

• Secular brightness curves of 272 comets. (Lacerda et al. 2025, accepted for publication at A&A)
• How much earlier would LSST have discovered currently known long-period comets? (Inno et al. 2025, Icarus 429, 116443)

Short CV

• Scientific Programme Coordinator at NL Space Campus, 2024-now
• Member of the Comet Nucleus Science Working Group for the ESA Comet Interceptor mission, 2023-now
• Member of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, 2022-now
• Technology Broker at ESA Space Solutions Portugal, 2022-now
• Founder, Researcher, Teacher and Baker at Miolo, 2020-2021
• Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, 2016-2019
• Max Planck Research Group Leader, MPI for Solar System Research, Germany, 2013-2016
• Michael West Research Fellow, Queen’s University Belfast, UK, 2010-2013
• Royal Society Newton Fellow, Queen’s University Belfast, UK, 2008-2010
• Postdoc researcher, Institute for Astronomy, U. Hawaii, 2006-2008
• Postdoc researcher, Coimbra University, Portugal, 2005-2006
• PhD researcher, Leiden University, Netherlands, 2000-2005
• Full CV linked here.

Other Info

• Here is a list of my colleagues and collaborators.
• ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1708-4656
• Ciência ID: 601F-21C5-E180
• Homepage at Coimbra University