Conny Aerts

Conny Clara Aerts, born 26 January 1966, is a Belgian (Flemish) professor in astrophysics. She specialises in asteroseismology. She is associated with KU Leuven and Radboud University, where she leads the Chair in the Astroseismology group. In 2012, she became the first woman to be awarded the Francqui Prize in the category of Science & Technology. In 2022, she became the third woman to be awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics for her work in asteroseismology.

Biography Aerts was born in Brasschaat, Belgium. She received her Bachelor and Master in Mathematics from the University of Antwerp. She participated in the International Astronomical Youth Camp in 1987 and 1988. She then went on to complete her PhD in 1993 at KU Leuven. After completing she spent several months doing research at the University of Delaware. She was a postdoctoral fellow with the Fund for Scientific Research from 1993 to 2001, when she was appointed lecturer at KU Leuven. She became first associate professor in 2004, and then full professor in 2007 at KU Leuven. The oscillations are obtained from both ground and space-based telescopes. In her PROSPERITY project, she used data obtained from the CoRoT satellite and the NASA Kepler satellite. She is currently the Belgian principal investigator on the PLATO mission.

Aerts developed methodology using Gaussian mixture classification to analyse the data. She uses this to determine the star structure and inform stellar models within stellar evolution theory. With these techniques she has made a number of discoveries, including that of non-rigid rotation in giant stars. (Mixing and Angular Momentum Transport of Massive Stars).

Outreach Aerts is Vice-Dean of Communication & Outreach at the Faculty of Science at KU Leuven. She is outspoken about the need to increase gender equality in the sciences, As of 2026, Aerts became a co-editor of the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Prizes and recognition In 2010 she was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 2011 she was elected Member of the Royal Flemish Academy for Sciences and Arts. In 2017 she was awarded the Hintze Lecture at Oxford University, delivering also a public lecture entitled "Starquakes expose stellar heartbeats". In 2022 she was awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. In 2024 she received the Crafoord Prize in Astronomy.