Personal profile

Overview

Klaas Wiersema is a Dutch astrophysicist, specialised in the observational study of transient sources, in particular sources that emit time-variable polarised light. He has published many papers in refereed journals on topics ranging from gravitational wave sources to orbiting satellites, and has been active in building, commissioning and calibrating several astronomical instruments and observatories. Before coming to the University of Hertfordshire, Klaas worked at the University of Lancaster, University of Warwick, University of Leicester and the University of Amsterdam. 

Research interests

  • Classification and characterisation of astrophysical transient sources
  • Polarimetry as probe of non-thermal emission processes in transient sources
  • The electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave and neutrino sources (i.e. multi-messenger astronomy)
  • Using spectroscopy of transients to probe high-redshift galaxy properties and cosmology
  • Polarimetry as a quantitative tool in Space Domain Awareness (SDA)
  • Bubbles blown by the jets and accretion disks of X-ray binaries
  • Polarimetric properties of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs)

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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  • Discovery and analysis of afterglows from poorly localized GRBs with the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) All-sky Survey

    Kumar, A., Gompertz, B. P., Schneider, B., Belkin, S., Wortley, M. E., Saccardi, A., O’Neill, D., Ackley, K., Rayson, B., Postigo, A. D. U., Gulati, A., Steeghs, D., Malesani, D. B., Maund, J. R., Dyer, M. J., Giarratana, S., Serino, M., Julakanti, Y., Kumar, B. & Xu, D. & 69 others, Eyles-Ferris, R. A. J., Zhu, Z.-P., Warwick, B., Hu, Y.-D., Allen, I., Ramsay, G., Starling, R. L. C., Lyman, J., Ulaczyk, K., Godson, B., Galloway, D. K., Dhillon, V. S., O’Brien, P., Noysena, K., Kotak, R., Breton, R. P., Nuttall, L. K., Pollacco, D., Casares, J., Killestein, T. L., Kennedy, M. R., Habeeb, N., Moran, S., Wiersema, K., Worssam, I., Coppejans, D. L., Phillips, C. A., Martin-Carrillo, A., Pankov, N. S., Fernández, J. F. A., Aloy, M. A., An, J., Anderson, G. E., Bochenek, A., Castro-Tirado, A. J., Chen, X., Cotter, L., Dastidar, R., De Pasquale, M., D’Elia, V., Fang, Y., Fu, S. Y., Fynbo, J. P. U., Hartmann, D. H., He, L. B., Izzo, L., Jiang, S. Q., Kawakubo, Y., Klunko, E. V., Levan, A. J., Liu, X.-W., Liu, X., Lombardi, G., Maiorano, E., Palmerio, J. T., Perley, D. A., Pieterse, D. L. A., Pozanenko, A. S., Pugliese, G., Rossi, A., Sbarufatti, B., Seshashayana, S. B., Tanvir, N. R., Thöne, C. C., van der Horst, A. J., Vergani, S. D., Volnova, A. A., Wijers, R. A. M. J. & Wise, J. L., 31 Dec 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 544, 2, p. 1541-1587 47 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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  • GRB 241105A: a test case for GRB classification and rapid r -process nucleosynthesis channels

    Dimple, Gompertz, B. P., Levan, A. J., Malesani, D. B., Laskar, T., Bala, S., Chrimes, A. A., Heintz, K., Izzo, L., Lamb, G. P., O’Neill, D., Palmerio, J. T., Saccardi, A., Anderson, G. E., De Barra, C., Huang, Y., Kumar, A., Li, H., McBreen, S. & Mukherjee, O. & 68 others, Oates, S. R., Pathak, U., Qiu, Y., Roberts, O. J., Sonawane, R., Veres, P., Ackley, K., Han, X., Julakanti, Y., Wang, J., D’Avanzo, P., Martin-Carrillo, A., Ravasio, M. E., Rossi, A., Tanvir, N. R., Anderson, J. P., Arabsalmani, M., Belkin, S., Breton, R. P., Brivio, R., Burns, E., Casares, J., Campana, S., Chastain, S. I., D’Elia, V., Dhillon, V. S., Dyer, M. J., Fynbo, J. P. U., Galloway, D. K., Gulati, A., Godson, B., Goodwin, A. J., Gromadzki, M., Hartmann, D. H., Jakobsson, P., Killestein, T. L., Kotak, R., Leung, J. K., Lyman, J. D., Melandri, A., Mattila, S., McGee, S., Morley, C., Mukherjee, T., Müller-Bravo, T. E., Noysena, K., Nuttall, L. K., O’Brien, P., De Pasquale, M., Pignata, G., Pollacco, D., Pugliese, G., Ramsay, G., Sahu, A., Salvaterra, R., Schady, P., Schneider, B., Steeghs, D., Starling, R. L. C., Tsalapatas, K., Ulaczyk, K., van der Horst, A. J., Wang, C., Wiersema, K., Worssam, I., Wortley, M. E., Xiong, S. & Zafar, T., 30 Nov 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 544, 1, p. 548-571 24 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Open Access
    File
    1 Citation (Scopus)
  • A LOFAR search for coherent radio emission accompanying prompt engine activity in gamma-ray bursts

    Hennessy, A., Starling, R. L. C., Rowlinson, A., de Ruiter, I., van der Horst, A. J., Anderson, G. E., Tanvir, N. R., ter Veen, S., Wiersema, K. & Wijers, R. A. M. J., 26 Sept 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 544, 1, p. 53-66 14 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Open Access
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  • EP241021a: A Months-duration X-Ray Transient with Luminous Optical and Radio Emission

    Shu, X., Yang, L., Yang, H., Xu, F., Chen, J.-H., Eyles-Ferris, R. A. J., Dai, L., Yu, Y., Shen, R.-F., Sun, L., Ding, H., Zheng, W., Jiang, N., Li, W., Sun, N.-C., Xu, D., Zhang, Z., Jin, C., Rau, A. & Wang, T. & 75 others, Wu, X.-F., Yuan, W., Zhang, B., Nandra, K., Filippenko, A. V., Poidevin, F., Soria, R., Kumar, A., Aguado, D. S., An, F., An, T., An, J., Andrews, M., Anutarawiramkul, R., Baldini, P., Brink, T. G., Butpan, P., Cai, Z., Castro-Tirado, A. J., Cheng, H., Cui, W., Farah, J., Fu, S., Fynbo, J. P. U., Gao, X., Han, D., Han, X., Howell, D. A., Hu, J., Jiang, S., Kumar, B., Lei, W., Li, D., Li, C., Liu, H., Liu, X., Liu, Y., Liu, X., López-Oramas, A., Fernández-Nespral, D. L., Maund, J. R., McCully, C., Niu, Z., Newsome, M., O’Brien, P., Pan, H., Pan, Y., Padilla Gonzalez, E., Pérez-Fournon, I., Silima, W., Sun, H., Sun, S., Sun, X., Terreran, G., Tinyanont, S., Wang, J., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., Wiersema, K., Xu, Y., Xue, Y., Yang, Y., Zhang, F., Zhang, J., Zhang, P., Zhang, W., Zhang, Y., Zhao, H., Zhu, Z., Xin, L., Yao, Z., Cordier, B., Wei, J., Qiu, Y. & Daigne, F., 1 Sept 2025, In: Astrophysical Journal Letters. 990, 1, 21 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Open Access
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    4 Citations (Scopus)
    2 Downloads (Pure)
  • First joint absorption and T e -based metallicity measured in a GRB host galaxy at z = 4.28 using JWST /NIRSpec

    Inkenhaag, A., Schady, P., Wiseman, P., Yates, R. M., Arabsalmani, M., Christensen, L., D’Elia, V., De Pasquale, M., García-Benito, R., Hartmann, D. H., Jakobsson, P., Laskar, T., Levan, A. J., Pugliese, G., Rossi, A., Salvaterra, R., Savaglio, S., Sbarufatti, B., Starling, R. L. C. & Tanvir, N. & 3 others, Topçu, B., Vergani, S. D. & Wiersema, K., 8 Jul 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 541, 4, p. 3837-3850 14 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Open Access
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