Personal data
Address:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)
C/ Vía Láctea, s/n
E38205 - La Laguna (Tenerife), España
Phone: (+34) 922 60 5746
Email: nikola.vitas.iac AT gmail DOT com
Homepage: nikolavitas.blogspot.com
Place of birth and nationality: Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Republic of Serbia)
Research interests
Physics of solar, stellar and planetary atmospheres, (magneto)hydrodynamics, plasma physics, radiative transfer, opacities, observational diagnostics, remote sensing spectroscopy, high-performance computing, numerical modeling: methods and algorithms.
Education
Ph.D. in astrophysics, Universiteit Utrecht, January, 2011.
Thesis title: Observational Signatures of the Simulated Solar Photosphere
Advisors: Dr. Christoph U.Keller (promotor), Dr. Robert J. Rutten (promotor) and Dr. Alexander Vögler
M.Sc. in astrophysics, University of Belgrade, March, 2005.
Thesis title: The Hyperfine Structure of the MnI Lines in the Solar Spectrum
Advisors: Dr. Istvan Vince and Dr. Olga Atanackovic
B.Sc. in astrophysics, University of Belgrade, 1999.
Employment
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 2012-present
★ PostDoc within the framework of the "Solar Magnetometry in the Era of Large Solar Telescopes (AYA2014-60476-P)" project (PI's is Dr. Hector Socas-Navarro and Dr. Andres Asensio Ramos), 2017-present
★ PostDoc within the framework of the "Magnetic connectivity through the Solar Partially Ionized Atmosphere (ERC-2011-StG 277829-SPIA)" project, financed by the European Research Council in the frame of the FP7 Specific Program IDEAS (PI is Dr. Elena Khomenko), 2012-2016
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, 2011-2012
★ PostDoc within the Earth and Planetary Science division
Universiteit Utrecht, Sterrekundig Instituut, 2006-2011
★ Ph.D. student within Utrecht-Stockholm-Oslo Collaboration in Solar Physics, 2006-2011.
EC-funded through Marie Curie Actions
★ Teaching Assistant, 2006-2009.
☆ Radiative transfer in stellar atmospheres (with R. J. Rutten and A. de Koter)
☆ Introduction to Astrophysical Radiative Transfer (with R. J. Rutten and A. Vöogler)
University of Belgrade, Department of Astronomy, 1999-2006
★ Teaching Assistant (full time job), 1999-2006.
☆ General Astrophysics (designed problem sets and tests)
☆ Theoretical Astrophysics (designed problem sets, computer assignments and tests)
☆ Observational Astrophysics (organized practical exercises)
☆ Reduction of Astronomical Observations (designed lectures and problem sets)
☆ History of Astronomy
Research
Lectures in seminars and conferences (not complete)
★ SolarNet IV, Lanzarote, January 2017
★ Spectropolarimetry working group, Freiburg, November 2017
★ PIPA2, Tenerife, September 2017
★ National Conference of Astronomers of Serbia, October 2011.
★ SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, October 2011.
★ USO gathering, Institute for Solar Physics of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Jan. 2010, link
★ Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, December 2009, link
★ Institute for Solar Physics of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, November 2008, link
★ USO gathering, Institutt for Teoretisk Astrofysikk, Oslo, Nov. 2006, link
★ Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, June 2006, link
Working Papers / Ongoing projects
★ Disentangling the family of the short-characteristics RT solvers
★ Diagnostic potential of the Mn I lines in the solar spectrum
★ Realistic magnetoconvection simulations with the MANCHA code
Experience with scientific software
Radiative transfer, line synthesis and inversion codes}:
★ MULTI (M. Carlsson)
★ RH code (H. Uitenbroek)
★ LILIA, MELANIE, NICOLE (H. Socas-Navarro)
★ TROPOMI CO retrieval code (J. Landgraf)
3D Radiative MHD:
★ MURaM (A. Vögler et al.)
★ MANCHA (E. Khomenko, N. Vitas et al.)
Programming languages:
IDL (advanced), FORTRAN (advanced), Python (basic), C (basic), PHP, shell scripting
Visualization tools: IDL, TecPlot, Vapor
Other professional activities and university service
★ Member of ISSI team Extracting physical information from spectropolarimetric observations - Comparison of inversion codes, 2010-2012.
★ Assistant Editor in Serbian Astronomical Journal, 2003-2006.
★ Member of Nederlandse Astronomen Club
★ Member of Serbian Astronomical Society
★ Member of Astronomical Society Rudjer Boskovic
★ Advisor of one B.Sc. thesis at Sterrekundig Instituut Utrecht, 2009.
★ Participant in schools
☆ Inversion techniques, USO-SP School Abisko, 2009.
☆ Visualization of numerical data, Copenhagen, 2008.
☆ Radiative transfer and numerical MHD, USO-SP School, Oslo, 2007.
☆ The 5th NEON observing school, Observatoire de Haute-Provence, 2006.
☆ European solar magnetometry school, Tatranska Lomnica, 2004.
★Member of the Solar Eclipse Expedition team, Terskol, Russia, 2006.
★ Chairman and co-founder of the first state-independent Student Union of the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade, 1996-1998.
Languages
Serbo-Croatian (native speaker), English (fluent), Spanish (basic), Dutch (basic)
