In my work I am trying to understand how the galaxies were assembled using two complementary approaches. I am observing nearby objects, that can be analyzed in detail due to their vicinity, which contain the fossil record of billions of years of evolution. And I am observing the distant galaxies whose light reaches us after billions of years of travel through space. For this reason we can see them as they were when the Universe was young and the galaxies were still forming.
I was awarded the 2018 🏆 Tartufari International Prize for Astronomy by the Lincei Academy "for the profound effect on our knowledge of the structure of galaxies" achieved by my research using integral-field spectroscopy. For multiple years I have been included in the list of 🏆 Highly Cited Researchers"recognizing the true pioneers in their fields over the last decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year".
My work has progressed along the following lines of research:
The fossil record of galaxy formation: I was a Principal Investigator of the successful ATLAS3D project which involved a synergy between simulations, integral-field spectroscopy (Figure 1), CO and HI observations of a volume-limited sample of 260 elliptical and lenticular galaxies (Cappellari et al. 2011). We studied how these objects were assembled by measuring the amount of rotation in the galaxies as a function of other global parameters like mass, chemical composition, age and gas content (e.g. Figure 2). Here is a link to all the refereed ATLAS3D team papers.
Integral-field spectroscopy: I was a member of the SAURON team. We received the 2013 🏆
Group Award by the Royal Astronomical Society. We mapped the kinematics and the stellar population in galaxies using integral-field spectroscopy to provide new important observational constraints to galaxy formation models. Here is a link to all the refereed SAURON team papers. I am now part of the MaNGA collaboration and the Harmoni/ELT science team.
Supermassive black holes and dark matter: Black holes are believed to have played a key role in shaping galaxies and I am trying to understand the link between the evolution of black holes and their host galaxies (see my News & Views Nature article for a popular description). I'm studying supermassive black holes and dark matter (Figure 3) in galaxies by constructing dynamical models (Figure 4) for the stellar or gaseous components, using adaptive-optics assisted observations (SINFONI, NACO, OASIS, GMOS). I am part of the Harmoni/ELT science team and am planning the next revolution in black hole studies.
Cosmology: I am a member of the TDCOSMO team. We are combining strong gravitational lensing and galaxy stellar dynamical modelling to measure the scale of the Universe and trying to resolve the tension between different cosmological probes. We use integral-field spectroscopy using observations with the VLT and Keck telescopes from the ground and JWST from Space.
0000-0002-1283-84200
