Peter is an astronomer working at SRON in the Netherlands. His research group is funded largely through an ERC Consolidator grant. The main aim is to determine black hole masses in a dynamical way. In particular, they are trying to find out if intermediate-mass black holes exist.
Peter is co-chairing the Athena Topical Panel on Luminous Extra- Galactic transients and he is a member of the X-IFU science advisory team. He is also a member of the ESO-Athena Synergy team, which is in the process of identifying science goals for Athena and ESO facilities that would benefit or can only be achieved using both Athena and ESO data. In the Netherlands, Peter is coordinating with the different university teams which activities are necessary such that they can maximize the science harvesting of Athena.
One of Peter´s hopes is that the Athena/WFI will offer the capability to alert astronomers in (near) real time on any transient that is serendipitously found in its field of view.
Link to the PDF version.
Image: Chandra light curves of a new type of explosive X-ray flash in the field of the old elliptical galaxy M86.