Curriculum Vitae et Studiorum: Dr. Mariateresa Crosta

Curriculum Vitae et Studiorum: Dr. Mariateresa Crosta
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino
Strada Osservatorio 20
10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
Tel: +39-011-8101922
Fax: +39-011-8101930
E-mail: [email protected]
Date and Place of Birth: April 15, 1969 – Campobasso, Italy
Education:
Ph.D. in Space Science and Technology, University of Padova, Italy (2003)
Laurea in Physics (grade: 110/110 cum laude), Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy (1998)
Visiting Scholar, University of Missouri, Columbia MO, USA (2001)
Positions Held:
From 2008 Researcher, permanent position, INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino
2005 – 2007, Fixed term researcher, INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino,
Juanuary 2004 - February 2005, Post-Doctoral Poincaré fellowship, Astronomical Observatory of Nice
(OCA/CNRS/INSU, France)
Scientific biography
I have a permanent position as researcher astronomer at the Observatory of Torino- INAF.
The need of a relativistic model suitable for the reduction of high precision astrometric data for the Gaia
mission (ESA, launched on December 2013) and for new gravitational tests, its validation on realistic
simulations has been the main subject of my research activity carried out since my Ph.D. thesis under the
supervision of Prof. F. de Felice (University of Padua) and in close collaboration with the Astrometric
Group at the Observatory of Turin. I was also Poincaré Fellow at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (INSU
-CNRS / OCA ), starting the work with Dr. F. Mignard on the assessment of the relativity experiment close
to Jupiter's edge .
Within Gaia I was a core member of the Relativity and Reference Frame Working Group (RRFWG) of
Gaia, and, at the present, I am responsible of the workpackage Local Relativistic tests and of the
workpackage Theoretical comparison between relativistic models (Development Unit "Relativistic Models
and Tests") within the context of the Coordinate Unit 3 (CU3) of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis
Consortium (DPAC).
Part of my activity was also dedicated to the appropriate comparison of fully general relativistic model and
approximated ones with particular emphasis on the reconstruction of stellar light trajectory. This has
required developing mathematical skills able to tackle the complexity of the inverse ray-tracing problem in
curved space-time: for more than a decade I am one of the pioneers of the validation relativistic model for
the data of the Gaia astrometric mission.
Briefly, my activity has been focused on: refinements of the RAMOD models, a family of general
relativistic models of increasing intrinsic accuracy, suitable for the interpretation of high precision
astrometric data within the precepts of General Relativity, and its specialization to the Gaia mission context
for the validation of the baseline model (GREM); application of the theory of measurement in General
Relativity to Astrophysics and, in particular, to the inverse light ray tracing problem; tests on General
Relativity, such as light deflection due to the giant planets and microlensing effects; legacy of fundamental
physics to relativistic astrometry and local cosmology; new relativistic effects, in particular those detectable
by astrometric observations; space-time navigation, relativistic transformations between the Celestial
Coordinate Reference Systems (IAU resolutions) and link to the Celestial Reference Frame, i.e. quasars;
astrometric interpretation of sub-stellar objects (low mass star and brown dwarf, in the solar system
neighborhood) from ground observations.
Outreach programs have been instituted within the context of the Gaia. I cover the role of national
coordinator for the outreach Italian participation in Gaia and responsible for the science dissemination
project entitled " The History of Photons ".
Main scientific assignements and related activity:
Core member of the Relativity and Reference Frame Working Group (RRFWG) of the Gaia mission (ESA).
From 2001 to 2005 (http:// www.to.astro.it/ astrometry/ GAIA_RRFWG/ MemberList/ index.html)
Manager of the workpackage (WP) “Local Relativistic tests”, differential GAREQ (Development Unit
"Relativistic Models and Tests", REMAT) within the context of the Coordinate Unit 3 (CU3) of the Gaia
Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, ESA). From 2006 onward
Manager of the WP “Theoretical comparison between the RAMOD and GREM models” (REMAT) within
the context of CU3 of DPAC. From 2006 onward
Manager of the WP “Refinements of the RAMOD model” (REMAT), within the context of CU3 of the
DPAC. From 2006 onward
Co-manager of the WP “RAMOD model” (REMAT) within the context of CU3 of DPAC. From 2006
onward
Habilitation aux Fonctions d'enseignant
Astrophysique. February 2007
Chercheur, Maitre de Conférence, Section 34 Astronomie,
Member of the International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (People Marie Curie Actions) Programme
“Interpretation and Parameterization of Extremely Red COOL dwarfs (IPERCOOL)”, # 247593 (R. Smart,
PI). From 2009 to 2014
Manager of the WP “Gaia Science outside scientific borders. The Italian contribution”, ASI contract
I/058/10/0. From 2009 onward
Creator and coordinator of the outreach project ``The History of Photons'', ASI contract I/058/10/0. From
2009 onward
Scientific coordinator of the OATo Seminars. From 2008 to 2009
Scientific coordinator of the Distinguished Lectures Cycle ``Latest News from the Universe'', Osservatorio
Astrofisico di Torino. From 2008 to 2010
Co-facilitator of the WGC2 “Relativity and Fundamental Physics” of the GREAT (Gaia Research for
European Astronomy Training) Research Network Programme of the European Science Foundation. From
2009 to 2014
Co-Chair of ESF Workshop "Qso, Fundamental physics, and Astrometric Cosmology in the Gaia era" held
in Porto, 6-9 June 2011
Chair of the The Time Machine Factory Conferences held in Turin: TM2012, 14-19 October 2012,
http://timemachine.polito.it/home/?q=node/5 and TM2015 http:www.timemachinefactory.eu/it, 25-26
October 2015
National Coordinator for the outreach activity related to the Gaia Launch, 2013
National Coordinator for " WP960 Education and Outreach'' (Coordination Unit 9) of the Gaia Data
Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC). From 2013 onward.
Volunteer member of the Office of Astronomy for Development, http://www.astro4dev.org/
IAU member of: Division A Fundamental Astronomy, Division C Education, Outreach and Heritage,
Division J Galaxies and Cosmology, Division A Commission 8 Astrometry, Division J Commission 47
Cosmology, Division A Commission 52 Relativity in Fundamental Astronomy, and Division C
Commission 55 Communicating Astronomy with the Public
Editor activity
Anton, S.; Crosta, M.; Lattanzi, M. G.; Andrei, A.
QSO astrophysics, fundamental physics, and astrometric cosmology in the Gaia era
Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana, v.83, p.901 (2012) (2012)
Crosta, M.; Gramegna, M.; Ruggiero, M.L.
The Time Machine Factory EPJ Web of Conferences 58 (2013) (2013)
Thesis Supevisor:
2010-2013, Co-supervisor of the PhD thesis “Modélisation relativiste d'un schéma global de réduction de
données pour l'astrométrie spatiale de haute precision”, Observatory of Paris and University of Torino
Observing experience:
2011, NTT, NPARSEC observing program 186.C-0756, La Silla, Chile
2011, ESO2.2. WiFi, PARSEC observing program 086.C-0168 (D), La Silla, Chile
2009, ESO2.2. WiFi, PARSEC observing program 083.C-0446, La Silla, Chile
1998, Astrometric observations with the reflector REOSC telescope (1 m) of the Astronomical Observatory
of Turin within the Torino Observatory Parallax Program (P.I.: Dr. R.L. Smart)
Latest Publications from 2010:
Crosta, M.; Vecchiato, A. Gaia relativistic astrometric models. I. Proper stellar direction and aberration.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 509, id.A37 (2010)
de Felice, F.; Preti, G.; Crosta, M. T.; Vecchiato, A. Relativistic satellite astrometry: the stellar radial
velocity. Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 528, id.A23 (2011)
Andrei, A. H.; Smart, R. L.; Penna, J. L.; d'Avila, V. A.; Bucciarelli, B.; Camargo, J. I. B.; Crosta, M. T.;
Daprà, M.; Goldman, B.; Jones, H. R. A.; Lattanzi, M. G.; Nicastro, L.; Pinfield, D. J.; da Silva Neto, D.
N.; Teixeira, R. Parallaxes of Southern Extremely Cool Objects. I. Targets, Proper Motions, and First
Results. The Astronomical Journal, Volume 141, Issue 2, article id. 54 (2011)
Crosta, Mariateresa; Tracing light propagation to the intrinsic accuracy of spacetime geometry. Classical
and Quantum Gravity, Volume 28, Issue 23, pp. 235013 (2011)
Riva, Alberto; Gai, Mario; Loreggia, Davide; Lattanzi, Mario G.; Crosta, Maria Teresa; Sciarratta, Isidoro,
GAIA mock-up: an educational demonstrative GAIA model, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project
Management for Astronomy V. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8449, id. 84491G-84491G-6 (2012)
Bini, Donato; Crosta, Mariateresa; de Felice, Fernando; Geralico, Andrea; Vecchiato, Alberto;
The Erez-Rosen metric and the role of the quadrupole on light propagation, Classical and Quantum
Gravity, Volume 30, Issue 4, id. 045009 (2013)
Smart, R. L.; Tinney, C. G.; Bucciarelli, B.; Marocco, F.; Abbas, U.; Andrei, A.; Bernardi, G.;
Burningham, B.; Cardoso, C.; Costa, E.; Crosta, M. T.; Dapr‡, M.; Day-Jones, A.; Goldman, B.; Jones, H.
R. A.; Lattanzi, M. G.; Leggett, S. K.; Lucas, P.; Mendez, R.; Penna, J. L.; Pinfield, D.; Smith, L.; Sozzetti,
A.; Vecchiato, A. NPARSEC: NTT Parallaxes of Southern Extremely Cool objects. Goals, targets,
procedures and first results; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 433, Issue 3,
p.2054-2063 (2013)
Nobili, A. M.; Lucchesi, D. M.; Crosta, M. T.; Shao, M.; Turyshev, S. G.; Peron, R.; Catastini, G.;
Anselmi, A.; Zavattini, G.; On the universality of free fall, the equivalence principle and the gravitational
redshift; American Journal of Physics, Volume 81, Issue 7, pp. 527-536 (2013) (2013)
Bertone, Stefano; Minazzoli, Olivier; Crosta, Mariateresa; Le Poncin-Lafitte, Christophe; Vecchiato,
Alberto; Angonin, Marie-Christi, Time transfer functions as a way to validate light propagation solutions
for space astrometry; Classical and Quantum Gravity, Volume 31, Issue 1, article id. 015021 (2014)
Crosta, M., Vecchaito, A., de Felice, F., Lattanzi, M.G., “The Ray Tracing Analytical Solution within the
RAMOD framework. The case of a Gaia-like observer”, arXiv:1501.03705 [gr-qc] 2015
Public outreach
January 20, 2003 Interview for the ``Leonardo Scienze'' program (RAI broadcasting) about the VLBI
experiment with Jupiter on September 8, 2002 to test the speed of gravity
January 2009 Round Table on ``The Disk of Nebra, the first star Catalog'', Circolo dei Lettori, Torino
Il pianeta lo salvo io, http://www.giralangolo.it/ilpianetalosalvoio/mariateresa-crosta.htm
5-8 October 2009 Organizer of the lectures “Leggere l'Universo: il punto di vista delle astronome”,
Biblioteca della Regione Piemonte, Torino
Subject of the "History of The Photon" by Mariateresa Crosta (INAF - Prot OATo 2010 N.2125 and
N.2179)
Screenplay of the "History of The Photon" , Mariateresa Crosta and Enrico Laterza (INAF - Prot OATo
2012, N.0970)
Media INAF Contributions: The Time Machine Factory, http://www.media.inaf.it/2012/10/12/time-machinefactory/
Organization of the Inaugural Concert for the The Time Machine Factory conference,Sunday, October 14,
18:00, Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali: Quartetto TEA
Performance The Network of Space-Time Interlacements for the The Time Machine Factory Inauguration,
Sunday, October 14, 20:30, Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali
Collaboration with the Istituto Europeo di Design di Torino (IED) and PHOS for the reportage of the Time
Machine Factory event by the students of the three-year post-graduate course in Photography,
http://timemachine.polito.it/home/?q=node/44
Collaboration with Stefano Fiorina for his thesis of the three-year post-diploma course in Photography,
Istituto Europeo di Design, Turin, a.y. 11/12, photo subject: The Time Machinehttp://www.ied.it/blog/thetime-machine/1571#.Uwe8STkRIX4
Mini Film-Festival on Time Machine, October 14- 21, Turin, http://timemachine.polito.it/home/?q=node/20
Materia e Curvatura: un intreccio ancor celato, Museo Civico di Rovereto, November 15, 2012, Rovereto,
Italia
La relatività e gli intrecci dello spazio-tempo, Notte dei ricercatori, September 27, 2013, Torino, Italia
Crosta, M., Perfomance on INTRECCI SPAZIO-TEMPORALI, Notte dei ricercatori,
Torinohttp://www.oato.inaf.it/astrometry/Gaia_Italia/Partecipazione_Italiana/DidatticaDivulgazione/eventi/2
013/NotteRicercatori/index.html (2013)
Media INAF Contributions: Alla ricerca dei
http://www.media.inaf.it/tag/mariateresa-crosta/
viaggiatori
Media
INAF
Contributions:
Dakhino
e
http://www.media.inaf.it/2013/12/19/the-meaning-of-light/
nel
Zemyna
tempo
in
sul
web
viaggio
[08/01/2014],
con
Gaia,
Collaboration with the Istituto Europeo di Design di Torino (IED) for the reportage of the National event for
the
launch
of
Gaia
in
ALTEC,
December
19
Turin,
http://gallery.media.inaf.it/main.php/v/photo/eventi/lanciogaia/
La relatività e l’astrometria, Cielo@Scuola, course for teacher of high schools, OATo-INAF, January 29,
2014
Video conference for Giovedì Scienza, GAIA: COME VEDERE UNA MONETA SULLA LUNA, 30
gennaio 2014, Teatro Colosseo, http://www.giovediscienza.it/modules/conferenze/article.php?storyid=115
Prova di Vista per Gaia, Media INAF, February 6 2014, http://www.media.inaf.it/2014/02/06/prova-di-vistaper-gaia/
The Network of Space-Time Interlacements, educational tool on General Relativity [Intrecci di rete spaziotemporali], Tec. rep. OATO-INAF 158 (2012), ASI contract I/58/10/0(IWP-S-100)
Anziché, P.; Crosta, M. Edu.Art Video in Italian on General Relativity and Astrometry, Intrecci SpazioTemporali,http://www.oato.inaf.it/astrometry/Gaia_Italia/Partecipazione_Italiana/DidatticaDivulgazione/vid
eo/2013/IntrecciSpazioTemporali.mov (2013)
Crosta, M., " The Meaning of Light. Part.I: The photon who fell on Gaia" Motion comics movie (ASI
contract) realized in collaboration with Maga Animation (2013) from the subject of the "History of The
Photon"
Language skill
• English written and spoken
• French written and spoken (Course on "Français langue pour étrangère" (CNRS) Maison du séminaire,
NICE. From November 2004 to Mars 2005