University of Auckland astrophysicist Dr Heloise Stevance in front of a screen showing a favourite supernova, Cassiopeia. Photo / Elise Manahan
University of Auckland astrophysicist Dr Heloise Stevance in front of a screen showing a favourite supernova, Cassiopeia. Photo / Elise Manahan
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Queen
My mum loves Queen and I've learned to love them by osmosis. I remember being on holiday with her, blasting this out in the car. And she cannot sing for the life of her, not a single note! You'd think by accident she'd get a few of themright. It's brilliant. And [lead guitarist] Brian May is an astronomer too.
I'M WITH YOU Avril Lavigne
The way I felt about it as a teenager might not exactly fit with the lyrics, because I was a 12- or 13-year-old French girl who had no idea what they meant. But the tone of the song is there — those difficult years when you feel so isolated, before you grow up and realise everyone was going through the same thing.
I did feel very lonely. I can tell I had depressive episodes but back then people didn't talk about mental health; they didn't have the vocabulary around it. For parents, if you're doing well at school, you're doing just fine. And I was always a good student.
This is basically them sticking the finger to the system and the music industry: "I've made it — get on your knees and bow down." For me, it's part of the healing process from a very difficult end of my PhD years in the UK. Some people really don't want you to get where you want to be.
Now, I'm finally in a place with my science career where I have some really amazing collaborators and people who believe in me, and it looks like I'm going to have some of the opportunities I've always dreamed of. I guess it's my way of sticking it to the people who didn't want me to get there.
Wilco was the favourite band of my first proper boyfriend at uni, the first time I fell head over heels. I remember the feeling of being completely at peace one summer, listening to that song, seeing the blue sky, me looking at him, him looking at me – the same way I look at my husband now. It's a dedication to that feeling of first love.
A computational astronomer, Stevance has written a piece of code to determine the age of star clusters. Photo / Elise Manahan
WEAR SUNSCREEN Baz Luhrmann — Mau Kilauea's tropical remix
I came across the tropical mix on YouTube just before I started my PhD. I was 22, at that time when all the insecurities of your late teens are still there but starting to fade away. I listened to that song at least once a day and it had a major impact on my transition towards the confidence and nonchalance that comes with proper adulthood.
I still play it every so often when I feel overwhelmed and need to take a step back to my roots. It helps me get some perspective and it's all very good advice - except, "Don't mess too much with your hair."
COSMIC LOVE Florence + the Machine
My husband is a very subdued, very British man but he loves her [Florence Welch]. I always put some Florence + the Machine into the playlist when we go on road trips together. He's an astronomer too, back in the UK, and this song makes me think of him so much. We both travel a lot for our work and [long-distance relationships] are very common for people in our field.
I call him my husband, but when I left England on January 6, 2020, our plan was to get married that April when I was back for a conference. We both travel a lot for our work, and it sucks, but [long-distance relationships] are very common for people in our field. Then Covid happened and we haven't seen each other since. If the border reopens by the end of the year, he'll be fully vaccinated and we'll do it here and have a barbecue.
Dr Heloise Stevance is an astrophysicist at the University of Auckland and has written a piece of code, called the Age Wizard, to determine the age of star clusters. She's now testing its accuracy against several that have already been well studied, including the Pleiades star cluster Matariki.
