Biography

I did my PhD in Astrophysics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany, with Ralf Bender and Laura Greggio, on the chemical evolution and stellar populations of early-type galaxies. After post-doctoral research positions at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial physics (Garching, Germany) and Oxford University (UK). I joined the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth in 2007. I am now Professor of Astrophysics and Head of the School of Mathematics and Physics.

My research broadly addresses the formation and evolution of galaxies and galaxies as cosmological probes with particular interests in stellar populations and chemical evolution, galaxy populations, large-scale galaxy surveys, galaxy environment, galaxy dynamics and dark matter, supernova host galaxies, and globular clusters.

I am involved in various large-scale galaxy surveys (SDSS-IV/MaNGA, SDSS-III/BOSS, DES, GAMA, Euclid, Galaxy Zoo) where I was holding several leadership positions. I was Science Team Chair in SDSS-IV/MaNGA co-ordinating the overall scientific output of the survey and co-chair of the galaxy evolution science working group in DES co-ordinating the science activities in this research area within the collaboration. The principal aim of of my research is studying the properties of galaxy populations with their environment and cosmic time. I also work on stellar population modelling and chemical evolution simulations.

Research interests

Galaxy formation and evolution, stellar populations and chemical evolution, galaxy populations, large-scale galaxy surveys, galaxy environment, galaxy dynamics and dark matter, supernova host galaxies, globular clusters.