Astrobiologist of the Month

BÁRBARA ROJAS-AYALA

“I'm a Chilean astronomer, passionate about red dwarfs, the smallest and most numerous stars in the Galaxy, and everything that has to do with them. In addition, I am involved in outreach activities and diversity initiatives in STE(A)M fields. I'm married and the mother of a 2-year-old boy.”

Position
Associate Professor at the Instituto de Alta Investigación - Universidad de Tarapacá (IAI-UTA) and Associate Researcher at the Center of Astrophysics and Related Technologies (CATA)

Career Pathway
B.S. Astronomy - Universidad de Chile; M.S., Astronomy - Cornell University; Ph.D., Astronomy - Cornell University

Research Topics
M dwarfs, brown dwarfs, and exoplanets. In particular, I focus on characterizing M dwarfs in the optical and near-infrared, developing and improving techniques to obtain their fundamental parameters. The above is essential to understand them and their planetary systems fully

Why did you decide to become an Astrobiologist?
Since I was a kid, I have been interested in geology and geophysics. However, I got into astronomy as an undergrad and got involved with exoplanets as a grad student. The latter inevitably led me to think about life in the universe and what needs for its development and to connect with researchers from other areas to address questions related to astrobiology. I'm very interested in the development of astrobiology in Chile considering our geography's advantages: we have the Atacama desert and Antarctica, which are great places to search and study meteorites and extremophiles, and the clearest skies for observational astronomy

If your lab/research group had a nickname, what would it be?
IAI-AstroLab / Exoplanets and Astrobiology group CATA

Are you accepting students?
The IAI-UTA doesn't have an undergrad or graduate program yet, but I'm always interested in working with students on projects in collaboration