• Reader (Associate Professor) in Astrophysics, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), UK  (2024--).

• Senior Lecturer (Assistant/Associate Professor) in Exoplanets, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), UK  (2023--2024).

• Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Exoplanets, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), UK  (2022--2023).

• Winton Fellow & Lecturer in Exoplanets, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), UK  (2020--2022).

• Winton Fellow, University of Cambridge, UK  (2018-2020).

• Research Associate in Experimental Astrophysics, University of Cambridge, UK  (2015-2018).

• Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellow, House of Lords, UK Parliament  (10/2014-01/2015).

• PhD student in Astrophysics, University of Oxford, UK  (2011-2015).

• Officer Cadet, Northumbrian Universities Air Squadron, Royal Air Force, Volunteer Reserve  (2007-2010).

• Masters in Physics and Astronomy, University of Durham, UK  (2006-2010).

- I lead two teams to detect and characterise young planets and test origin of life scenarios:

1.  NGTS Clusters Survey  (2017--).

2.  Planets and Stellar Activity through Time collaboration  (2021--).

- I participate in various efforts focused on detecting and characterising young stars and planets, as well as probing astrobiology and prebiotic chemistry:

3. ESA's PLATO mission. Lead of Young Stars and Planets working group (2023--).

4. TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) member  (2022--).

5. ESA's ARIEL mission.  Member of Prebiotic Chemistry and Astrobiology Working Group  (2021--).

6. Haydn mission concept for ESA M7 mission.  Contributing Scientist for the Exoplanet Science Team  (2021--).

7. Anchoring Planet Evolution through Time. Co-I  (2020--).

8. Universal Life Initiative  (2016--).

9. Next-Generation Transit Survey. Member of core science team and Management Board (2015--).

10. K2 Young Suns Survey. Co-I  (2014-2017).

11. Coordinated Synoptic Investigation of NGC 2264. Co-I  (2011-2015).

12. ESA's CoRoT mission  (2011-2015).

- 65 papers on stars, planets and life (6 first author, 9 second author, 8 third author); 2300+ citations; h-index 23; full list here. 

- Highlights include:

• Photosynthesis under a red Sun: predicting the absorption characteristics of an extraterrestrial light-harvesting antenna (Duffy, Canchon, Haworth, Gillen et al. 2023)

• Periodic stellar variability from almost a million NGTS light curves (Briegal, Gillen et al. 2022)

• NGTS clusters survey - I. Rotation in the young benchmark open cluster Blanco 1 (Gillen et al. 2020).

• Statistical analysis of Curiosity data shows no evidence for a strong seasonal cycle of martian methane (Gillen et al. 2020).

• NGTS-10b: the shortest period hot Jupiter yet discovered (McCormac, Gillen et al. 2020).

• NGTS-4b: A sub-Neptune transiting in the desert (West, Gillen et al. 2019).

• The origin of RNA precursors on exoplanets (Rimmer, Xu, Thompson, Gillen et al. 2018).

• New low-mass eclipsing binary systems in Praesepe discovered by K2 (Gillen et al. 2017).

• A low-mass exoplanet candidate detected by K2 transiting the Praesepe M dwarf JS 183 (Pepper, Gillen et al. 2017).

- 43 presentations (12 invited seminars, 18 conference talks and 13 poster presentations). 

- Highlights include:

• Probing the early evolution of stellar and planetary systems  (Colloquia, Universities of Cambridge [2022] and Oxford [2023]).

• A dedicated search for young transiting planets  (TESS Science Conference II, online, 2021).

• Understanding the early evolution of stellar and planetary systems (Seminar, Imperial College London UK, 2019).

• Young planets, brown dwarfs and eclipsing binaries in Praesepe (Contributed talk, Dwarfs Stars and Clusters with K2, USA, 2018).

• A Neptune transiting in the desert (Poster, Exoplanets II, UK, 2018).

• A low-mass exoplanet candidate detected by K2 transiting an M dwarf in Praesepe (Poster, Exoplanets I, Switzerland, 2016).

• Young planets and eclipsing binaries in the K2 clusters (Contributed talk, K2 meeting, Portugal, 2016).

• Constraining the early stages of binary star evolution with young eclipsing binaries (Contributed talk, Cool Stars 18, USA, 2014).

• The first low-mass, pre-main sequence eclipsing binary with evidence of a circumbinary disk (Contributed talk, The Space Photometry Revolution, France, 2014; view).

- 31 successful proposals on large ground- and space-based observatories, 9 as Principal Investigator (PI) and 22 as Co-Investigator (Co-I).

- 19,000 targets awarded on space observatories and 1,800 nights awarded on ground-based observatories. 

- Highlights include:

• Planets and stellar activity through time (PI: NASA's TESS mission; 16,925 targets to date).

• The K2 young Suns survey (Co-I: NASA's Kepler/K2 mission; 1102 targets).

• Unveiling the origin of a unique transit feature on a young star (PI: NTT/ULTRACAM, Chile).

• Characterising hot Neptunes and super-Earths from the NGTS survey (Co-I: ESO-3.6m/HARPS, Chile).

• Probing the transition between ice giants and gas giants with the NGTS Survey (Co-I: ESO-3.6m/HARPS, Chile).

• Spectroscopic characterisation of pre-main sequence eclipsing binaries in NGC 2264 (PI: WHT/ISIS, La Palma).

- 16 nights observing experience on large ground-based telescopes (6 nights joint, 10 nights solo):

• 10 nights, William Herschel Telescope, ISIS, La Palma. Solo observer (2012-2014).

• 6 nights, Isaac Newton Telescope, IDS, La Palma  (2012).

-  I have supervised 28 postgraduate and undergraduate students:

• 5 PhDs (2015--), 10 Masters  (2016--) and  13 undergraduate Bachelors students (2018--).

-  Undergraduate, postgraduate and secondary school teaching:

• Lecturer, Exoplanets and Astrophysical Discs (Masters course), QMUL (2022--)

• Module Associate (tutor), Our Universe (1st year undergraduate course), QMUL (2020--).

• Module Associate, Physics of Galaxies (3rd year undergraduate course), QMUL (2021--2022).

• Deputy Module Organiser, Solar System (Masters course), QMUL (2020--2021).

• PhD and MPhil viva examiner, PhD probationary reviewer, and undergraduate research project examiner (2019--).

• Demonstrator in undergraduate physics laboratories (2012-2013).