Claudia Maraston is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Portsmouth. She designs models for the calculation of spectro-photometric evolution of stellar populations. She is the winner of the 2018

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NG ...

Eddington Medal The Eddington Medal is awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society for investigations of outstanding merit in theoretical astrophysics. It is named after Sir Arthur Eddington. First awarded in 1953, the frequency of the prize has varied over the year ...

Education and early career

Maraston completed her postdoctoral studies at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continu ...

in 1998. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as well as the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. In 2005 she was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship, which allowed her to join the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Research

She won a

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...

Excellence Team Grant in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded a €1.4 million

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

grant for ''UNIMASS''. ''UNIMASS'' looked at how stellar population models informed galaxy formation. Maraston is interested in calculating the physical properties of galaxies (age, mass, history, epoch of formation) from observational data and galaxy formation simulation. Her Stellar Population Models are available for the public. She looks to calculate how much

dark matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not a ...

is present in a galaxy. She establishes the galaxy photometric

redshifts In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in f ...

(k-) and their corrections (e). She has studied single and composite stellar populations. She has been part of several large grants from the

Science and Technology Facilities Council The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a United Kingdom government agency that carries out research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astro ...

. She was the architect of the

SDSS-III The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...

/ Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) project. In 2016 she used this to calculate stellar masses for 400,000 luminous galaxies. BOSS is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and is designed to measure the

baryon acoustic oscillations In cosmology, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) are fluctuations in the density of the visible baryonic matter (normal matter) of the universe, caused by acoustic density waves in the primordial plasma of the early universe. In the same way ...

. They use her stellar population models. She modelled the

UV spectrum Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation i ...

of the

/ Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey galaxies. In January 2018 she was awarded the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NG ...

for her investigations into theoretical astrophysics. She is the second woman to win the award since it began in 1953. Maraston is a popular science communicator, and has taken part in

Café Scientifique Café Scientifique currently exists in more than 60 towns and cities across the United Kingdom and world-wide. It was the idea of Duncan Dallas, from Leeds, who was impressed by the Café Philosophique session he saw in France. Café Scientifiqu ...

and written for popular science magazine

Astronomy Now ''Astronomy Now'' is a monthly British magazine on astronomy and space. According to the Royal Astronomical Society, ''Astronomy Now'' is the "principal amateur astronomy magazine in Britain" with a reputed circulation of 24,000. The magazine ...

. She serves on the editorial board of the journal the ''

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' (MNRAS) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in astronomy and astrophysics. It has been in continuous existence since 1827 and publishes letters and papers reporting orig ...

.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maraston, Claudia Academics of the University of Portsmouth Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Italian astrophysicists