Already as a child I was fascinated by the stars, by space, and in particular by rockets and satellites. Now my research focuses on a better understanding of the stars' childhoods and youths using data from ground and space based observatories. And I am still quite passionate about satellite missions.

I was very happy to be involved in the scientific preparation of several space missions including the Canadian Microsatellite Mission MOST (Walker et al. 2003), the French-led mission CoRoT (https://cnes.fr/en/projects/corot), and the Austrian-Canadian-Polish nano-satellite mission BRITE-Constellation (https://brite-constellation.at). This work also provided me with a lot of insight into designing, building, testing and operating satellites.

Currently, I am involved in the preparation of the ESA Mission PLATO (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Plato. I am leading the Science Calibration and Validation Team: our responsibility is the selection of special targets (i.e., the scvPIC) to calibrate and validate PLATO data necessary to reach the main science goals of the mission.

I am working with my team primarily on the topic of pre-main sequence asteroseismology with the aim to improve our understanding of the early phases of stellar evolution. I am very glad and proud that I can share my enthusiasm with my international students and colleagues.

A brief history of my career:

I defended my PhD thesis ("Pulsating pre-main sequence stars in young open clusters") in November 2005. Since then I held four peer-reviewed, international, personal fellowships and grants and pursued my main research interest: studying young stars using their oscillations.

I held my habilitation colloquium on October 31, 2017, at the University of Innsbruck (title: "Asteroseismology of pre-main sequence stars").

From October 2018 to February 2023, I had an "Ingeborg Hochmair full professorship for stellar astrophysics" at the Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics of the University of Innsbruck.

Due to the success of my research team, I was then put into a fast track procedure for a permanent full professorship position at the University of Innsbruck that I am holding now since November 2024.

Since March 2024, I am also Associate Dean of Studies for Physics at the University of Innsbruck.

Private

When I am not working, I enjoy playing the piano and making chamber music with friends, reading books, cooking, knitting, and meeting with friends and family.