Research Associate
Dr Cristina Martinez Lombilla
Science
School of Physics
Dr. Martinez-Lombilla completed a 4-year undergraduate in Physics and a Master's degree in Astrophysics at Universidad de La Laguna (Spain). She worked as Telescope Operating Technician at the Teide Observatory for a year. Then, she started a Ph.D. program at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC, Spain) and a thesis entitled 'Thick discs and truncations in spiral galaxies' under the supervision of Prof. Johan Knapen and Dr. Ignacio Trujillo. During that period, she had stays abroad at the Liverpool John Moores University (UK), the University of Oulu (Finland), and the University of Central Lancashire (UK). She completed her Ph.D. in 2018 and continued 1 year more in the same institution in a postdoctoral position. Since February 2020, she is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Prof. Sarah Brough’s team.
The main research interest of Dr. Martinez-Lombilla is to understanding how galaxies were formed and how they evolve through the study of their low surface brightness regions. She develops new techniques to detect the dimmest structures in galaxies —like halos, tidal streams, thick discs, breaks, and truncations—, or around them within clusters and groups of galaxies —as the intracluster and intragroup light (ICL). She is an expert in the characterization of scattered light and the analysis of its effect in both point-like sources and extended objects within ultra-deep imaging. She also has wide experience modeling galaxy light profiles and their structural components.
Dr. Martinez-Lombilla is part of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Galaxies Science Collaboration, actively contributing to the Low Surface Brightness Working Group. She is co-chair of Astronomy & Programming workshops in developing countries, and very active in women in STEM outreach activities. She is currently ECR cohort of the UNSW Women in Maths and Science Champions Program.
E-mail
Location
School of Physics
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- PhD Fellowship ‘Ayudas para contratos predoctorales para la formación de doctores’ (ref: BES-2014- 070224), Ministry for Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain (2015). Amount: AUD $146.000
- Grant ‘Estancias breves 2018’ by the Ministry for Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain to spend 3 months of collaboration at the Astrophysics Research Institute ARI, LJMU (Liverpool, UK). Amount: AUD $8.100
- Fellowship 'Ayudas Fundación BBVA a Equipos de Investigación Científica concedidas en el área de Big Data'; Title: ‘Using machine learning techniques to drag galaxies from the noise in deep imaging’, PI: Johan Knapen (IAC), Role: collaborator. Period: 2018-2020. Amount: AUD $165.200
- Grant ‘Estancias breves 2016’ by the Ministry for Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain to spend 4 months of collaboration at the Astrophysics Research Institute ARI, LJMU (Liverpool, UK). Amount: AUD $10.300
- EIBES program 2011. Grant for stay 4 moths at the Universidad de Córdoba (Argentina). Amount: AUD $1.650
- Travel grants for meetings (accommodation, registration fee, and conference dinner): LSST 2018 Workshop on the Impacts of Blending on LSST Science, Tucson, EEUU (2018); XII Reunión Científica de la SEA (Spanish Astronomy Association), Salamanca, Spain (2018); XIII Reunión Científica de la SEA, Bilbao, Spain (2016). Total in-kind amount: ~AUD $3.500
- “Best Ph.D. student in the Canary Islands” Invited by the Spanish Ministry of Science to attend the official ceremony of the National Research Prizes 2018, presided over by the King and the Queen of Spain
- Ph.D. completed within 3 years. Ph.D. in Astrophysics cum laude with honors (maximum score) and with international mention
- Best contribution in the 'Thin, thick and Dark discs' meeting (July 2017, Ascona, Switzerland). Talk: “Formation and evolution of thick disks: the ultra-deep imaging perspective”. Amount: AUD $825
Publications:
As a first author:
- Martínez-Lombilla, C. & Knapen, J. H., 2019, A&A, 629, A12, “Thick discs properties from ultra-deep Stripe82 imaging”
- Martínez-Lombilla, C.; Trujillo, I.; Knapen, J. H., 2019, MNRAS, 483, 664-691, “Discovery of disc truncations above the galaxies' mid-plane in Milky Way-like galaxies”
Full Dr. Martinez-Lombilla publication track record can be found in this SAO/NASA-ADS link.
Invited Talks:
- “Going wider and deeper: the low surface brightness perspective" AstroGeoInformatics – Knowledge Discovery in Big Data from Astronomy and Earth Observation, Tenerife, Spain, December 17-19, 2018
- “Formation and evolution of thick disks: the ultra-deep imaging perspective”, Thin, Thick and Dark discs meeting, Ascona, Switzerland, July 24-28, 2017. Assistance by invitation only.