Amina Helmi (6 October 1970) is an Argentine

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

and professor at the

Kapteyn Astronomical Institute The Kapteyn Astronomical Institute is the department of astronomy of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The institute is named after its founder, Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn, who lived from 1851 to 1922. Jacobus Kapteyn was appointed pr ...

at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

in the Netherlands.

Education

Helmi was educated at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

where she was awarded a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 2000 with a thesis on the formation of the

galactic halo A galactic halo is an extended, roughly spherical component of a galaxy which extends beyond the main, visible component. Several distinct components of a galaxy comprise its halo: * the stellar halo * the galactic corona (hot gas, i.e. a plas ...

, supervised by Tim de Zeeuw and Simon White.

Career and research

Since 2003 Helmi has been faculty member at the University of Groningen, and has been a full professor since 2014. Previously, she held

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

positions at the

University of La Plata The National University of La Plata (, UNLP) is a national public research university located in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It has over 90,000 regular students, 10,000 teaching staff, 17 departments and 10 ...

in Argentina, the

Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) is a research institute located in Garching, just north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is one of many scientific research institutes belonging to the Max Planck Society. The MPA is widely consid ...

in Germany, and

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

in the Netherlands. Her research focuses investigates the

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

and dynamics of galaxies, in particular the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

, using locations, velocities, ages, and chemical abundances of stars to understand the formation process of galaxies, known as galactic archaeology. She also studies the nature of

dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...

. In her research, Helmi uses computer simulations as well as observational data from for example the Gaia space telescope.

Awards and honors

In 2019, Helmi was named one of the four winners of the

Spinoza Prize The Spinoza Prize () is an annual award of 1.5 million euro prize money, to be spent on new research given by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. It is named after the philosopher Baruc ...

. She was awarded membership of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 2017. She was awarded the Christiaan Huygensprize in 2004 and the Pastoor Schmeitsprize in 2010. The

Helmi stream The Helmi Stream is a stellar stream of the Milky Way galaxy. It started as a dwarf galaxy, now absorbed by the Milky Way as a stream. It was discovered in 1999, is formed of old stars deficient in heavy elements, and has a mass of 10 to 100 milli ...

is named after her and she was awarded the

Suffrage Science award The Suffrage Science award is a prize for women in science, engineering and computing founded in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS). There are three categories of awar ...

in 2019. In 2021, Helmi won the Brouwer Award from the

Division on Dynamical Astronomy The Division on Dynamical Astronomy (DDA) is a branch of the American Astronomical Society that focuses on the advancement of all aspects of dynamical astronomy, including celestial mechanics, solar system dynamics, stellar dynamics, as well as the ...

of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmi, Amina 1970 births Living people 20th-century Argentine astronomers Argentine astrophysicists Academic staff of the University of Groningen Leiden University alumni Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Spinoza Prize winners 21st-century Argentine astronomers