Paola D'Alessio Vessuri (1964–2013) was a British-born

planetary scientist Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their ...

who worked in Mexico at 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 ...

(UNAM) Center for Radioastronomy and Astrophysics. Her research concerned protoplanetary disks.

Education and career

D'Alessio was born on 30 July 1964 in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, the daughter of Argentine–Venezuelan social anthropologist Hebe Vessuri. She studied physics as an undergraduate in Venezuela, at the

Central University of Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela (Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in L ...

, with undergraduate research in 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 ...

. She then went to UNAM for graduate study in astronomy, earning master's and doctoral degrees there and becoming a researcher at UNAM in 1996. After postdoctoral research at the

Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics The Center for Astrophysics , Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), alternatively called the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is an astrophysics research institute jointly operated by the Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrop ...

and

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

she returned to UNAM in 2001, and soon after became affiliated with the newly formed Center for Radioastronomy and Astrophysics. She died of cancer on 14 November 2013.

Recognition

D'Alessio won the 1997 Weizmann Prize prize of the Mexican Academy of Sciences for the best doctoral thesis in the sciences in Mexico, and later became a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. UNAM gave her their Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz prize in 2006, and in 2010 she was given the Michoacán State Prize of Science and Technology.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Alessio, Paola 1964 births 2013 deaths Scientists from Oxford Planetary scientists Women planetary scientists Central University of Venezuela alumni National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Members of the Mexican Academy of Sciences