Maritza Arlene Lara-López is a Mexican astronomer whose research interests include

metallicity In astronomy, metallicity is the Abundance of the chemical elements, abundance of Chemical element, elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal currently detectable (i.e. non-Dark matter, dark) matt ...

galaxy formation and evolution In cosmology, the study of galaxy formation and evolution is concerned with the processes that formed a heterogeneous universe from a homogeneous beginning, the formation of the first galaxies, the way galaxies change over time, and the process ...

and

extragalactic astronomy Extragalactic astronomy is the branch of astronomy concerned with objects outside the Milky Way galaxy. In other words, it is the study of all astronomical objects which are not covered by galactic astronomy. The closest objects in extragalactic ...

. She is a participant in the

Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey is a project that plans to exploit the latest generation of ground-based wide-field survey facilities to study cosmology and galaxy formation and evolution. GAMA plans to bring together data from a nu ...

, and a researcher and Ramón y Cajal Fellow in the faculty of physical sciences at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

Education and career

Lara-López is originally from

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

, and did her undergraduate studies in physics at the

Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla The Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla () (BUAP) is the oldest and largest university in Puebla, Mexico. Founded on 15 April 1578 as Colegio del Espíritu Santo, the school was sponsored by the Society of Jesus during most of the Spanis ...

, graduating in 2005 with a senior thesis based on research at the

National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics The National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (in Spanish (language), Spanish: ''Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, INAOE'') is a Mexican science research institute located in Tonantzintla, Puebla. Found ...

in Puebla and mentored by Raul Mújica and Omar López Cruz. She became a graduate student at the

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) is an astrophysical research institute located in the Canary Islands, Spain. It was founded in 1975 at the University of La Laguna. It operates two astronomical observatories in the Canary Islands: ...

in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

of Spain, supported by the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT). She earned a master's degree in 2007 and completed her PhD in 2011, supervised by Jordi Cepa. She was a researcher and "Super Science Fellow" at the

Australian Astronomical Observatory The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, was an optical and near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in North Ryde in suburban Sydney, Australia. Originally funded jointly by the G ...

from 2011 to 2014. Next, she became an assistant professor of astronomy at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

(UNAM), associated with the UNAM Institute of Astronomy, from 2014 to 2017. She was a research fellow and assistant professor at the

Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute () is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics, and biophysics. Overview The institute was foun ...

of the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

from 2017 to 2020, and a postdoctoral researcher at the

Armagh Observatory Armagh Observatory is an astronomical research institute in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Around 25 astronomers are based at the observatory, studying stellar astrophysics, the Sun, Solar System astronomy and Earth's climate. In 2018, Armagh Obs ...

in Ireland from 2020 to 2022. She took her present position as Ramon y Cajal Fellow in the faculty of physical sciences at the

in 2022. Her research collaborations include the

, the SAMI Galaxy Survey, and the OSIRIS Tunable Emission Line Object Survey (OTELO).

Recognition

Lara-López's dissertation won a prize for the best thesis in Mexico. In 2016, L'Oréal México named her as one of five winners of their L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science Fellowship.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lara-López, Maritza Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Puebla (city) Mexican astronomers Women astronomers Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla alumni Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen