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Mónica Rubio
Full Professor
Background & Contact Information
Ph.D. in Astrophysics and Space Science, 1992, U. of Paris, France.
Research Topics:Physics of Interstellar Medium, Molecular Clouds, Star Formation and Magellanic Clouds
Areas of interest
My main stream research is the study of the properties and physical conditions of the interstellar medium and the star formation process in low metallicity systems. In particular, I study the Magellanic Clouds as their proximity offer a unique laboratory to investigate molecular clouds in an interstellar medium with different properties . I have extended my research to local low metallicity dwarf galaxies like WLM with metallicities less than 15% solar, as they allow us to study molecular clouds and the star formation process in the early universe, where the abundance of heavier elements and the dust content was much lower.
Biography
Dr. Mónica Rubio obtained her Ph. D. degree at the Universitè de Paris, France. She is a full professor at the Astronomy Department of the Universidad de Chile. She served as Director of the Astronomy Program (2008-2014) and as Vice President at the National Commission for Science and Technology (CONICYT) in 2019.
Dr. Rubio is an expert in the subject of star formation and molecular clouds. She has given numerous lectures in international conferences and visited institutions in Europe, United States, Japan, and Latin America. During her scientific career, she has obtained more than 700 nights in the observatories in Chile, as well as Hubble Space Telescope, SOFIA, and HERSCHEL Telescope satellite missions. She discovered, using the ALMA telescope, how low metallicity galaxies form stars, a discovery published in the prestigious Journal NATURE and covered by the media worldwide.
Dr. Rubio is President of the Chilean Society of Astronomy (2019-2020) and Vice President of Division H: Galaxies of the International Astronomical Union (2018-2020).
Dr. Rubio is an expert in the subject of star formation and molecular clouds. She has given numerous lectures in international conferences and visited institutions in Europe, United States, Japan, and Latin America. During her scientific career, she has obtained more than 700 nights in the observatories in Chile, as well as Hubble Space Telescope, SOFIA, and HERSCHEL Telescope satellite missions. She discovered, using the ALMA telescope, how low metallicity galaxies form stars, a discovery published in the prestigious Journal NATURE and covered by the media worldwide.
Dr. Rubio is President of the Chilean Society of Astronomy (2019-2020) and Vice President of Division H: Galaxies of the International Astronomical Union (2018-2020).
Courses, Projects, Recent publications
- General Astronomy (undergraduate)
- Astronomy Topics (undergraduate)
- Introduction to Physics (undergraduate)
- RadioAstronomy (Graduate)
- Directed Research (Graduate)
