I am currently an ESA Research Fellow at ESAC (Madrid, Spain), where I focus my research on debris disks.
Check out the press release for my most recent paper about the debris disk around Beta Pictoris:
I did my undergrad studies at Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia (Spain), with an undergrad thesis on rp nucleosynthesis processes in astrophysical scenarios under the supervision of Manuel Caamaño. I studied my masters in Astrophysics in the Universidad de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain), associated to the IAC, where did my master thesis in the study of the phase curve of Kepler-7b with Kepler data.
In 2014 I joined ESAC as a trainee working with Bruno Merín and Álvaro Ribas in the study of transitional disks with archival data from the Herschel Space Observatory.
After that, I started my PhD in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid under the supervision of Eva Villaver and Benjamín Montesinos. There I studied the presence of variable gas and exocomets in the environment of main sequence stars. I defended my thesis in January 2020.
Until January 2023, I was a postdoc at STScI since September 2020, where I participated in the GTO program 1411 to study the disk around Beta Pictoris with coronographic imaging, using NIRCam and MIRI.
Research interests
At Space Telescope Science Institute, I am part of the GTO program 1411 that will image the disk around Beta Pictoris, a rich environment with large amounts of dust, gas, small bodies and two planets.
I am also PI the JWST GO program 2053 to detect volatile gas around main-sequence stars, in order to investigate volatile delivery in early planetary systems.
As a part of the ERS High Contrast Imaging team (PI Hinkley, 1386), I am involved in simulations and analysis of the hybrid disk around HD 141569A.
My main research interest is the study of exocomets and minor bodies in planetary systems, in the context of astrobiology studies.
I am as well a co-lead of the SAG 23 that aims to study the effect of Exozodiacal dust in the search for exoplanets in direct imaging.
I participate actively in numerous outreach activities.
As part f the activities related to the International Day of Women in Science (Feb. 11th), I participate regularly in the “Talk to an astronomer” (Chatea con una astrónoma)activity, organized by the Spanish Astronomical Society, and I have imparted a number of talks in elementary and middle schools in Galicia (Spain) to make accesible basic astronomy and research activities in small schools.
Since March 2021 I am a member of the Comsión Mujer y Astronomía of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA), where we organize a number of activities to promote the role of women in science, but also research to detect, analyze and try to mitigate the origin of gender imbalance in science.
