Professor Erminia Calabrese

Biography

Career Overview

• 2019-date    Professor and Deputy Director of Research - Cardiff University (UK)
• 2017-2019   Lecturer - Cardiff University (UK)
• 2017-date    STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow - Cardiff University (UK)
• 2016-17       STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow - University of Oxford (UK)
• 2015-16       Lyman Spitzer Jr. Fellow - Princeton University (USA)
• 2014-15       Beecroft Fellow - University of Oxford (UK)
• 2011-14       PDRA in astrophysics and cosmology - University of Oxford (UK)

Education

• 2008-11     PhD  in Astronomy - Sapienza, Universita` di Roma (Ita)
• 2006-08     Master  (MSc) in Astronomy and Astrophysics - Sapienza, Universita` di Roma (Ita)
• 2003-06     Bachelor  (BSc) in Physics and Astrophysics - Sapienza, Universita` di Roma (Ita)

Awards

• 2019    European Research Council Starting Grant
• 2019    Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize for the Planck Team
• 2018    Gruber prize in cosmology as a member of the Planck team
• 2018    Royal Astronomical Society Group Achievement Award for the Planck Team
• 2018     Marcel Grossman Award to the Planck scientific collaboration
• 2016    STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship
• 2012    Junior Research Fellowship (non-stipendiary), Wolfson College, Oxford

• 2011    Tito Maiani prize for thesis in physics

Professional services

• Refereeing
  • Reviewer for PRD, PRL, JCAP, ApJ, MNRAS, A&A

• Speaking Engagement
  • I get regular invitations to give seminars, colloquia and conference/workshop talks. Over the last 8 years I have spoken at Aachen, Rome, Tenerife, Royal Astronomical Society-London, Stockholm, Florence, Louvain, Kings College London, Leiden, EPFL-Lausanne, UCL-London, Liverpool, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Sussex, Cambridge, Queen Mary-London, Crete, Oxford, Imperial College-London, Durham, Manchester, Amsterdam, Bielefeld, Heidelberg, SISSA-Trieste, and Bonn in Europe; BNL/Brookhaven, Ann Arbor-Michigan, Cornell, IAS-Princeton, and Chicago in the USA; JAXA in Tokyo, Japan.

• Memberships of Scientific Societies
  • 2016-date     Member of the Cosmology and Astrophysics Network for Theoretical Advances and Training Actions (CANTATA) supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology
  • 2015-date     Member of the International Astronomical Union

• Committees
  • 2018-date  Ambassador for the Data Innovation Research Institute, Cardiff University 
  • 2018-19    PhD admission committee, Cardiff Astronomy
  • 2017          PhD admission committee, Oxford Astrophysics
  • 2016          Co-organizer (committee of 6 people) of Symposium on “CMB polarization foregrounds” at EWASS 2016, Athens, Greece
  • 2016          LOC member of the LSST DESC Collaboration meeting, Oxford
  • 2016          Co-organiser of the Astrophysics journal club, Oxford
  • 2014          Co-organizer of the ACT Collaboration meeting, Oxford
  • 2012-13     Co-organiser of the cosmology seminars, Oxford

  • 2013          LOC member of the “Synergetic Science with Euclid and the Square Kilometre Array” workshop, Oxford

• Outreach
  • 2019          Podcast on the Hubble constant for Pythagorean Astronomy and BBC Wales
  • 2019          Talk at the Cardiff Sixth Form College for A-level students
  • 2018          Interviews for Nature Astronomy and New Scientist magazine
  • 2018          Panel member at "Beyond Einstein: The Future of Physics", the Cheltenham Science Festival, UK
  • 2017          Panel member at "The Universe: What Don't We Know", the Cheltenham Science Festival, UK
  • 2015-17     Interviews for Symmetry Magazine and New Scientist UK
  • 2011-15     Stargazing Oxford
  • 2013          Royal Societry Summer Science Exhibition, London

Publications

My research combines theoretical work with statistical data analysis to answer fundamental questions about the Universe. I lead work on characterising multi-frequency CMB microwave data, on combining data from satellite and ground-based experiments, and on extracting the underlying primordial CMB signal carrying the imprint of the physics of the early Universe, leading to state-of-the-art constraints on neutrino physics, inflation, dark matter and dark energy physics.

I am a member of many CMB experiments: I am a long-standing science member of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, a Scientist of the Planck mission, and a full member of the Simons Observatory for which I chair the Theory and Analysis Committee and lead pipeline development for characterizing small-scale data. I am a full member of the proposed, Japanese-led LiteBIRD mission for which I also serve as UK National coordinator and European Deputy Spokesperson for LiteBIRD-Europe.

I am also a full member of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration, and a member of the Euclid Collaboration, looking at how to combine low-redshift data with the CMB.

Supervision

• Charlotte Braithwaite, PhD student at Cardiff (2019-date) -- Simons Observatory optics characterization.
• Christiane Lorenz, PhD student at the University of Oxfrod (2016-2019) -- constraining neutrino physics and dark energy with low- and high-redshift data.

During 2013-2017 I have served as Advisor for graduate students at Wolfson College, Oxford.