Artigo no Messenger

I decided that I wanted to be an astronomer

when I first visited the Lisbon Planetarium.

I was six years old at the time,

and had no clue what astronomy was

about! I just remember my school drawings

went from being little houses and

trees to stars and planets.

I lived in Lisbon until I was 18, and one

day I came home and told my parents I

was moving to Porto because that was

the only place where I could study astrophysics.

Portugal is a small country, and

as you can imagine astronomy is not one

of the most popular careers to pursue.

However, my family was always very supportive

of my choices and I was lucky to

be one of the few people to be given

such an opportunity.

I did my undergraduate studies at the

University of Porto and after that I moved

to Italy where I worked on my master’s

thesis at the Osservatorio di Capodimonte

as part of the European Solar

Magnetism Network. I started my PhD

shortly after that and this time I moved to

Grenoble, France.

I obtained a joint degree from the University

Joseph Fourier and the University of

Porto. My thesis research consisted of

studying interferometry and its application

to the study of ejection processes

close to pre-main-sequence stars. I

worked on the AMBER instrument, the

three beam combiner for the VLT, during

the time I spent in France. When the

instrument was shipped to Paranal I was

awarded an ESO studentship in Chile,

where I spent two years finishing my PhD

and I had the privilege of participating in

the assembly, integrations and first light

of AMBER.

I joined ESO as a fellow in June 2006. My

duties consisted of observing 80 nights

per year at the VLTI and being instrument

fellow for the AMBER instrument. I am

now finishing my third year of a postdoc

in Chile and soon will be moving back to

Europe. One of the good things about the

ESO fellowship in Chile is that it allows us

to do a fourth year postdoc devoted fulltime

to research in any of the ESO member

countries. I am moving to Northern

Ireland, where I will be kindly hosted by

the Armagh Observatory for the next

year. After five years in Chile it is now

time to start a new adventure in a different

place. I am looking forward to the

green landscape, but will, for sure, miss

the unusual workplace I have had for the

last few years where no living species

can survive, apart from astronomers!