CHRONOLOGY OF EDUCATION

 

Ph.D. in Astrophysics	2004
4-year Ph.D. program, degree awarded by the University of Heidelberg Graduate student, Astronomical Institute, University of Jena	2000-2002
Graduate student, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg PhD Advisor : Th. Henning Thesis title: Massive star formation at high spatial resolution	2002-2004
M.A. in Astronomy 4-year researcher-track education in Astronomy University of Bologna, Italy Mater’s advisors: P. Caselli, G. Palumbo, M. Walmsley Thesis title: Comparative study of complex molecules in hot molecular cores	1999
CHRONOLOGY OF EMPLOYMENT
Full Professor, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, U. Arizona	2022-present
Associate Department Head, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, U. Arizona	2021-2023
Associate Professor, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, U. Arizona	2016-2022
Assistant Professor, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, U. Arizona	2011-2016
Staff Astronomer, Space Telescope Science Institute	2009-2011
Associate Research Scientist, Johns Hopkins University	2008-2011
Research Associate, Steward Observatory, U. Arizona	2004-2008
HONORS AND AWARDS (LIMITED TO 2017-2025)
Henry and Phyllis Koffler Award for excellence in Resarch/Scholarship/Creative Activity	2025
Blitzer Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Physics and Related Sciences	2024
Premio Circolo della Stampa di Pesaro, Italy	2024
Appointed as Chair of NASA’s ExoPAG Executive Committee	2022-present
Appointed as member of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee	2022-2025
Fellow of the American Astronomical Society	2022
Appointed as member of NASA’s ExoPAG Executive Committee	2021-2022
Visiting Professor, University of Bern, Switzerland	2019
Robert H. Goddard Team Award: LUVOIR Science and Technology Definition Team	2019
Visiting Professor, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany	2017-2018
Appointed as a member of the Science and Technology Definition Team for LUVOIR	2016-2020

 

SELECTED ACTIVITIES IN SERVICE AND OUTREACH

Departmental Committees:

• Blitzer award representative 2024
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee 2024
• Faculty status (P&T) 2024
• Associate Department Head for the Graduate Program 2021-2023
• Written Exam Committee, Member 2019-2022
• Strategic Planning Committee, Chair for the science topic Origins 2019
• Graduate Admission and Advising Committee, Chair 2018-2020
• Science Center for Astrobiology, Faculty Contact 2016-2017
• Curriculum Committee, Chair 2016-2017
• Awards Committee, Chair 2016-2017
• Departmental Life Committee, Member 2015
• Oral Comprehensive Exam, Standing Member 2013-2014
• Astrobiology Steering Committee, Member 2011-2015
• Recruitment Committee, Member 2011-2015

Other Committees (Internal or External):

• Member of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee 2022-
• Chair of NASA’s ExoPAG Executive Committee 2022-
• Science Organizing Committee, Computational Astrophysics in the ngVLA Era, NY 2021
• Reviewer for the Alfred Sloan Foundation, Call-For-Ideas Proposal Call 2020
• NASA Study Analysis Group #22, A Target Star Archive for Exoplanet Science 2020-2021
• External expert for tenure reviews 2019-2022
• Scientific advisory committee for the Protostars and Planets VII conference 2019-2023
• Science Organizing Committee, Ringberg Workshop on Planet Formation 2019
• 229th Meeting of the AAS, Session Chair, Planets and Planetesimals in Circumstellar disks 2017
• Science Organizing Committee, Habitable Worlds 2017
• D. Reading Committee for international students in Italy and The Netherlands 2017, 2018
• STDT member, NASA/LUVOIR 2016-2020
• Reviewer for CONICYT, ALMA funds for the development of Chilean Astronomy 2017
• Panel reviewer for ALMA and the Hubble Space Telescope 2011, 2013, 2014
• External reviewer for the European Research Council Ideas Specific Programme 2011
• Referee for the Astrophysical Journal, the Astronomical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Science, and Space Science Reviews

Local/State Outreach:

• Interview for Scientific American 2025
• Science Friday, radio interview 2024
• Jump in Tucson! (KVOI.com), radio show interview 2024
• AZPM news, radio interview 2024
• Interview for the Flandrau exhibit Universe of Science 2023
• Lecture on planet formation for the E.O. International Sisterhood, SaddleBrooke 2022
• Revealing Planetary Systems in the Making with ALMA and NASA’s Webb Telescope, 2022

LPL Public Lecture Series

• The physics of accretion: How the universe pulled itself together 2022

Interview for the Astronomy magazine

• Looking Forward to JWST: Protoplanetary disks, Steward Observatory Public Lecture Series 2022
• Imagine Alien Earths, workshop for K-12 teachers in collaboration with Pima County 2019
• The Search for Life Beyond Earth, Community Share Program, 4th graders, Tucson 2017
• The Formation of Earth and Habitable Planets, Tucson 2014

Lecture and hands-on activity for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

• Speaker at the Science Day, Sunrise Drive Elementary School, Tucson 2014
• Interview on Planet Formation for the on-line class “Astronomy: State-of-the-Art” 2013
• Where Did All Earth’s Water Come From?, LPL Public Lecture Series 2012

 

National/International Outreach:

• Revealing the lives of planet-forming disks, press release 2025
• Combination of cosmic processes shapes the size and location of sub-Neptunes, press release 2025
• JWST reveals planet-forming disks can last longer than previously thought, press release 2025
• Winds of change: Webb Telescope reveals elusive details in young star systems, press release 2024
• Webb Telescope finds plethora of carbon molecules around young star, press release 2024
• James Webb Space Telescope captures the end of planet formation, press release 2024
• Oltre la Terra: Alla Ricerca di Pianeti Abitabili, public lecture, Pesaro, Italy 2024
• Interview for the article The physics of accretion, Astronomy magazine 2022
• Unknown Treasure Trove of Planets Found Hiding in Dust, press release 2018
• Invited speaker in Il Bello di Unicam, Italy, to promote science and research 2018
• Planet-Forming disks May Resemble Solar System 5 Billion Years Ago, press release 2018
• Our old, vast, expanding Universe, talk for 5th graders, Heidelberg International School 2017
• Got Planets? Smaller Stars Are Best Bet, press release 2016
• A Caccia di Terre Gemelle, guest speaker in Futura Festival, Italy 2014

A yearly event with public talks from scientists, philosophers, and writers

• Academic Minute, Northeast Public Radio Rules of Planetary Placement 2012

 

 

ADVISING

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

• Feng Long, NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow 2022-pres.
• Kamber Schwarz, NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow, now postdoc at the MPIA, Heidelberg 2018-2021
• Min Fang, now Faculty at the Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences 2017-2019
• Andrea Banzatti, now Assistant Professor at Texas State 2016-2019
• Gijs Mulders, now Assistant Professor at Universidad Adolfo Ib´an˜ez in Santiago de Chile 2013-2018
• Elisabetta Rigliaco, now Astronomer at INAF, Padua 2011-2014