Maria Cristina Volpe is an astrophysicist specializing in the theory and

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

of cosmological neutrinos, including neutrinos from

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

e, the mass of neutrinos, and neutrino oscillation. She has also been involved in research on ground-based facilities for neutrino production via

beta decay In nuclear physics, beta decay (β-decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle (fast energetic electron or positron) is emitted from an atomic nucleus, transforming the original nuclide to an isobar of that nuclide. For ...

, producing so-called "beta beams". She is a director of research for the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Education and career

After work at the University of Milan in Italy and

Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics. ...

in Denmark, Volpe became a doctoral student at the

Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds The Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds (GANIL), or Large Heavy Ion National Accelerator, is a French national nuclear physics research center in Caen. The facility has been in operation since 1983, and consists primarily of two seriali ...

and University of Caen Normandy in France, where she earned a Ph.D. in 1997 with the dissertation ''Etude des comportements anharmoniques et non-lineaires des vibrations des noyaux atomiques'' 'Study of anharmonic and non-linear behaviours of vibrations of atomic nuclei'' directed by . After research at the (IPN), supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Italian Fondazione Angelo Della Riccia, she became a permanent researcher for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1998. She completed a

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 2003 through

Paris-Sud University Paris-Sud University (French: ''Université Paris-Sud''), also known as University of Paris — XI (or as Université d'Orsay before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, in ...

, became a director of research for the CNRS in 2011, and was promoted to director of research 1st class in 2016. Initially affiliated with IPN, she moved to the

Astroparticle and Cosmology Laboratory The Astroparticle and Cosmology (APC) laboratory in Paris gathers researchers (experimentalists, theorists and observers) working in different areas including high-energy astrophysics, cosmology, gravitation, and neutrino physics. The institut ...

in 2012.

Recognition

Volpe was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of American Physic ...

(APS) in 2011, after a nomination from the APS Division of Nuclear Physics, "for her work on neutrino-nucleus interactions and understanding the role of neutrinos in astrophysical sites, and for her suggestion of building a source of low-energy beta beams using the beta decay of radioactive nuclei".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volpe, Cristina Year of birth missing (living people) Living people French astrophysicists French women physicists Women astrophysicists Neutrino physicists University of Caen Normandy alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research