About the author

Following my dream of "studying the stars" after countless nights watching the sky as a girl scout in Italy, I started my astrophysics career in 1986 when I obtained the Laurea Doctoral degree in Physics with a thesis in Astrophysics at the University of Milano in Italy. Prof. Peppo Gavazzi was my advisor and the thesis's title was "X-Ray Observations of the Cluster of Galaxies Abell1367" based on data from the Einstein X-ray 
                                     Observatory.




Immediately after graduation I left for France to pursue astrophysics studies in Paris and in 1987 I obtained the DEA--Degree of Advanced Studies in Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of Paris VII.
After a period of a few months teaching physics in a high school in Italy, I returned at the Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris as a postdoc until 1990 after being awarded an European Space Agency (ESA) Post Doctoral Fellowship. With Dr. Michel Dennefeld I started to study starburst galaxies in the optical and infrared. I also gained a lot of experience with optical telescopes after many observing nights at the
Observatoire de Haute Provence.
  
Two more fellowships from the A. Della Riccia and B. Bildt Foundations allowed me to move as a post-doctoral fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore USA were I stayed until 1991 pursuing my work on the AGN/starburst galaxies connection with Prof. Richard Griffiths. I was at STScI during the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in April 1990.





At the end of 1991 I was offered a job as a postdoc and later assistant research astronomer at the Center for EUV Astrophysics at the University of California in Berkeley, USA within the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Project (EUVE). Launched on June 7 1992, EUVE was the first NASA satellite mission entirely dedicated to observations in the wavelength range from 70 to 760 Å.  In addition to my duties connected to the running of the satellite, I studied EUV emission from Active Galactic Nuclei and Planetary Nebulae and the distribution of neutral hydrogen in the interstellar medium.


Since 1995 I am an astrophysicist working in the High
Energy
Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA) in Cambridge, USA. Within the CFA I am a member of the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) which operates the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, NASA's flagship mission for X-ray astronomy launched in 1999.
My duties in the CXC are split between the Science Data System (SDS) group  and the Chandra Director's Office                                         (CDO).
SDS is responsible for the design, specification, testing and documentation of the Chandra scientific data analysis software and for the support of users analyzing Chandra data. The CDO group assists the Director in the running of the CXC.

Most recently the focus of my scientific research has been on multi-wavelength extragalactic survey and in particular the COSMOS survey. COSMOS is a pan-chromatic – radio to X-ray – survey of a patch of the sky both large enough (2 sq.deg) and deep enough (AB~26 at the optical wavelength) to study galaxy and quasar evolution up to high redshifts in typical environments, with minimal ‘cosmic bias’ .

I live in Arlington with my husband, also an astrophysicist,  and our three boys.

CURRICULUM VITAE (here in PDF format)

PERSONAL DATA

  Born 12 January 1962 -- Perugia, Italy
  Nationality Italy & USA
  Languages Italian English French
  Family
Married with 3 children

WORK EXPERIENCE

 From 1995 Astrophysicist at the Chandra X-ray Center, High Energy Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA
 1993--1995 Assistant Research Astronomer at the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Project, Center for EUV Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, USA
 1991--1993 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Project, Center for EUV Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Scientific Consultant for the McKinley Group, Berkeley, USA. Internet specialist in research and location of
world-wide information and data on the Internet network
 1990--1991  A. Della Riccia and B. Bildt Foundations Post Doctoral Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA
 1988--1990 European Space Agency Post Doctoral Fellow at the Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, France
 1987--1988 Teacher of Introductory Physics at the Istituto Tecnico ``Bernocchi'' (Technical High School),  Legnano, Italy
Scientific consultant for the Zanichelli Publishing  Company, Bologna, Italy

EDUCATION

 2002            First VILSPA XMM SAS workshop, Madrid, Spain
 1988             First Astrophysics School "Evolution of Galaxies. Astronomical Observations" Les Houches, France
 1988              First ESO-OHP Summer School in Astrophysical Observations, Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France
 1987 DEA--Degree of Advanced Studies in Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of Paris VII, France
 1986 Laurea Doctoral degree in Physics with a thesis in Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Milano, Italy
Thesis Title: X-Ray Observations of the Cluster of Galaxies Abell1367
 1980     Maturita' Classica High School degree in Humanities, Liceo Classico "V. Tonolli", Verbania Pallanza, Italy

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

PERSONAL

 1990 Blanceflor Boncompagni-Ludovisi Bildt} Foundation  Fellowship (Stockholm, Sweden)
 1988 European Space Agency} (ESA) Postdoctoral Fellowship
Angelo Della Riccia Foundation Fellowship (Florence, Italy)

GROUP

  2000 Smithsonian Institution Certificate of Award (Chandra)
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Systems
Award (Chandra X-ray Observatory)
Trophy for Current Achievement (Chandra X-ray Observatory)
NASA Group Achievement Award (CXC Development and Operation Team)
Harvard-Smithsonian Scientists of the Year Award (Chandra Science Team)

COMPETITIVE GRANT AWARDS

 From 1992 Principal and Co-Investigator in several funded NASA Guest  Observer proposals to
perform observations with the EUVE, RXTE, BeppoSAX, CHANDRA and NewtonXMM observatories.
Principal Investigator of a funded NASA ADP proposal.
 1989-1995 Principal and Co-Investigator in several optical proposals to observe at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, Steward Observatory, Multi Mirror Telescope, Lick Observatory  (USA) and Observatorie de Haute Provence (France)

COMMUNITY SERVICE
  • Technical Reviewer at EUVE Peer Review AO1 through AO7.
  • Reviewer at the Chandra Peer Review (2000)
  • Referee for professional journals
  • Principal Organizer of the Chandra/CIAO Workshop series (8 workshops in 2001-2013) in Cambridge, MA, USA
  • Co-Chair of the Center for Astrophysics Colloquium Series (2003-2005)
  • Chair of the Science Organizing Committee for the ``Six Years of Science with Chandra'' Symposium (2005)
  • Co-Chair for the ``A Decade of Science with Chandra'' Symposium (2009)
  • Member of the CFA PostDoctoral Fellowship Committee (2006-2007)
  • Elected member of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Council (2005-8)
  • Member (2008) and Chair (2008-2009) of the Smithsonian Predoctoral Oversight Committee
  • Mentor for HGWISE (Harvard Graduate Women in Science and Engineering)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
  • Several lessons (talks and hands-on) at the Chandra/CIAO Workshops, Cambridge, MA 2001-2013
  • An Introduction to Active Galactic Nuclei lesson at the X-Ray Astronomy School, Cambridge, MA, Aug.2005
  • CIAO for the Chandra X-ray Observatory lesson within the ``High-Energy Astrophysics'' course of Prof. S. Holt, F.W.Olin College of Engineering, Needham MA, 2007-2009
  • Several lessons about elementary astronomy at the Bishop Elementary School, Arlington, MA
  • Introductory Physics teacher at a technical high school
TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE
  • Experience operating ground-based optical telescopes and spectrographs
  • Experience in commanding spacecraft and monitoring instrument health and safety
  • Four years as a support scientist for the EUVE mission
  • Twenty years as astrophysicist in the Science Data System Division of the Chandra X-ray Center.
  • Proficiency in several astronomical data reduction package (e.g. CIAO, FTOOLS, XSPEC, SAS)
  • Working knowledge of several programming languages (eg. SLANG, PYTHON, CSHELL)
  • Extensive experience with astronomical databases.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
  • American Astronomical Society
  • International Astronomical Union
  • Societa' Astronomica Italiana
  • Committe on Space Research (COSPAR)
PUBLICATIONS

Listed in the Publications page and always up-to-date on ADS

INVITED and CONTRIBUTED TALKS

 1990
 X-Ray Observations of the Cluster of Galaxies A1367
Invited Talk, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France
 1991 Observations of X-Ray Starburst Galaxy Candidates
Invited Talk, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA
 1992 Search for Starbursts among X-ray--Selected Galaxies
Invited Talk, Center for EUV Astrophysics, Berkeley, USA
 1992 First Results from the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite. Invited Talk,
Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, Italy
Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Italy
Osservatorio Astronomico di Milano-Brera
 1993 EUVE, the Interstellar Medium and PKS 2155-304
Invited Talk, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA
A Year of Observations with the the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite.Invited Talk,
Istituto di Fisica Cosmica del CNR, Milano, Italy
Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy
Osservatorio Astronomico di Firenze-Arcetri, Italy
 1995 Active Galactic Nuclei in the Extreme Ultraviolet
Invited Talk, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA
Active Galaxies in the Extreme Ultraviolet. Contributed Talk,
JENAM 95 European Astronomical Society Meeting, Catania, Italy
 1996 AGN Variability: an Extreme Ultraviolet View from Deep EUVE Observations.
Invited Talk COSPAR Scientific Assembly, E1.4 Meeting ``The Variability of AGN and its Relation to Accretion Disk Phenomenology'', Birmingham, UK
AXAF Data Analysis System: Infrastructure and New Features
Invited Talk, SAX Science Data Center, Rome, Italy
AGN Variability: an Extreme Ultraviolet View from Deep EUVE Observations
Invited Talk, Osservatorio Astronomico di Milano-Brera, Italy
 1995 The Variability and Spectrum of NGC 4051 from Deep, Simultaneous
EUVE and XTE Observations Contributed Talk, AAS HEAD meeting, Estes Park, USA
 2000     The High Resolution Chandra X-ray Spectrum of 3C273
Contributed Talk, in "AGN nel 2000'', 4th Italian National Conference on AGN,
Trieste, Italy
 2014
Extragalactic AGN surveys
Invited Talk at  the conference "Colorful Galaxies", Menaggio, Italy

STUDENTS and POSTDOCS

1997-2000   Ilaria Cagnoni
1999-2000   Elisa Costantini
2003-2004   Francesca Panessa