Rate My Professor Zoe Leinhardt

Professor Zoe Leinhardt is Professor of Physics in the School of Physics at the University of Bristol, where she serves as Astrophysics Theme Lead. She earned a BA from Carleton College, an MSc from the University of Washington, and a PhD from the University of Maryland. As a computational astrophysicist, her research examines the formation and evolution of planets and small bodies such as asteroids and comets using numerical simulations. Her academic interests include collisional evolution of planetesimals, young planets in transitional disks, circumbinary planets, formation of the Earth and the Moon, extreme debris disks, giant impacts, and planetary atmospheres.

Professor Leinhardt leads the Astrophysics research theme at Bristol and supervises a team comprising Senior Research Associate Dr Phil Carter and PhD students including Matthew Lodge, Lucy Taylor, and Lucy Watson. Among her former researchers are Dr Amy Bonsor, now Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge, Dr Mia Mace at the SETI Institute, and Dr Stefan Lines at the UK Met Office. She is Principal Investigator on projects such as "Forming exo-Mercuries: Making dense planets by impacts" (2024–2027) and "VapLoss: The chemical consequences of vapour loss during planetary accretion" (2020–2025). She held an Advanced Fellowship on "The Descent of Planets" (2010–2014). Key publications include "A ‘New Hope’ for Moon Formation: Presenting a Multiple Impact Pathway" (2026, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society), "Fractal Aggregate Aerosols in the Virga Cloud Code. II. Exploring the Effects of Key Cloud Parameters in Warm Neptune, Hot Jupiter and Brown Dwarf Atmospheres" (2026, The Astrophysical Journal), and "Aerosols are not Spherical Cows: Using Discrete Dipole Approximation to Model the Properties of Fractal Particles" (2025, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society). Her contributions enhance models of planetary formation and evolution.