BIOGRAPHY: ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ANNA FREBEL
ICRAR VISITING FELLOW 2017-18
MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Anna Frebel is an observational astronomer and her research is primarily observational stellar astrophysics, focusing on the discovery and element abundance analyses of the oldest, most metal-poor stars in the halo of the Milky Way and small dwarf satellite galaxies to explore the chemical and physical conditions of the early universe (“stellar and dwarf galaxy archaeology”). The main goals center around understanding a broad range of topics ranging from nucleosynthesis and nuclear astrophysics to chemical evolution to first star/first galaxy formation, and to the assembly of the Milky Way with its dwarf galaxies.

After studying physics in Freiburg, Germany, she obtained her Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics from The Australian National University’s Mt Stromlo Observatory (2007). She was awarded the 2007 Charlene Heisler Prize for the best Australian astronomy PhD thesis of 2006. She was a McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin (2006 – 2008) and a Clay Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge (2009 – 2011). Science News Magazine selected Anna Frebel as one of their ten 2016 Outstanding Young Scientists, and she is a 2011, 2013, and 2015 Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow (National Academy of Sciences). She won a 2013 CAREER Award from the US National Science Foundation for her work on the oldest stars and the early Universe. She also received the 2010 Annie Jump Cannon Award by American Astronomical Society and the 2009 Ludwig-Biermann Young Astronomer Award (from the German Astronomical Society).

At ICRAR, Anna will engage in scientific collaborations with the staff, conduct a series of discussions on gender and work life issues, and share her experience as a senior woman and mentor in astronomy with PhD students and ECRs.