Rosemary Coogan

Rosemary Coogan was born in 1991 in Northern Ireland, UK.

Education

Rosemary holds two master’s degrees from the University of Durham, UK. She completed her undergraduate master’s degree of Physics in 2013 which focused on physics, mathematics, computer programming and astronomy. In 2015, she received her master's degree in Astronomy, where she conducted research on gamma-ray emission from black holes.  

In 2019, Rosemary graduated with a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Sussex, UK. During that time, she spent one year as a visiting scientist in Paris, two weeks as a visiting astronomer at a Hawaiian observatory and travelled to further countries to present her findings at several international conferences. 

She speaks English, French and basic German. 

Experience

From a young age, Rosemary spent several weeks per year away from home onboard military training vessels and land bases as a Cadet Petty Officer with the Sea Cadets from 2002 to 2009. In 2009, Rosemary joined the Naval Reserve base HMS Calliope and its vessel HMS Example as an Officer cadet and was later promoted to Midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserves.   

Between 2013 and 2018, Rosemary spent more than one year working as a simulation support engineer and research data scientist in the UK, where she worked on software code development projects and developed machine learning techniques for anomaly detection from robotic sensors.  

In 2019, Rosemary started a postdoctoral research fellowship in astrophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Extra-terrestrial physics in Munich, Germany, to study the evolution of galaxies with astronomical data from space- and ground-based telescopes.

After completing this postdoctoral work in 2022, Rosemary joined French space agency CNES in Paris, France, as a research fellow in space science, where she worked on upcoming ESA/CNES missions such as EUCLID or the analysis of James Webb Space Telescope observations. 

Rosemary holds awards for telescope observation time at international observatories ALMA and NOEMA and for her PhD thesis from the University of Sussex Astronomy Centre. 

In her leisure time, Rosemary enjoys rowing, scuba diving, hiking, cycling, kayaking and yoga. Her other interests include playing the piano, cooking, board games and spending time with her family and friends.  

ESA experience

In November 2022, Rosemary was selected as an ESA astronaut candidate. She commenced her one-year basic training programme in April 2023 and attained astronaut certification at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre on 22 April 2024, rendering her eligible for spaceflight assignments.

Explore Rosemary's story in this interview and our ESA Explores podcast, available on major platforms.