Núria Pilar Calvet Cuni (born 1950) is a Venezuelan astronomer who studies

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space

and the evolution of protoplanetary disks around young stars. She is Helen Dodson Prince Collegiate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Michigan. She was the first woman to work as a professional astronomer in Venezuela.

Education and career

Calvet was born in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

in 1950. After study at the Central University of Venezuela, she earned a bachelor's degree from the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

in 1973. She continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a master's degree in 1975 and completing her Ph.D. in 1981. Her dissertation was ''Model atmospheres for T Tauri stars''. She worked for the

Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomia The Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomía (CIDA) is an institution in Venezuela, founded in honour of Francisco J. Duarte in 1975 for promoting observation, investigation, experimentation, theoretical work, and dissemination of research in the f ...

in Venezuela from 1981 to 1997, becoming vice president of the center. Next, she became an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She moved to her present position at the University of Michigan in 2005.

Recognition

Calvet was a 1987 recipient of the

Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Science Prize The Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury Science Prize, also known as the "Premio Fundación Empresas Polar" is the most important award offered by the private sector to contemporary scientists from Venezuela who have shown outstanding talent, creativity and pro ...

, the highest level private-sector science award of Venezuela. She was the first woman to receive this award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calvet, Nuria 1950 births Living people People from Caracas Venezuelan emigrants to the United States American astronomers American women astronomers Venezuelan scientists Venezuelan women scientists Hispanic and Latino American scientists Hispanic and Latino American women scientists National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Michigan faculty