Bio

After receiving a Master-equivalent degree in Physics from the Universita' Statale degli Studi di Milano (Italy), I moved to the Netherlands to complete my graduate studies in Astronomy at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (PhD 2005). I am currently Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, and was previously a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the MIT Kavli Institute (2008−2010), and a Chandra Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2005−2008).

My primary field of research is observational high energy astrophysics, with a main focus on the properties of accreting stellar and super-massive black holes, and the production of relativistic outflows as a source of energy input into the interstellar and intergalactic medium. More recently, I became interested in the effects of high-energy stellar irradiation in the context of atmospheric escape from exoplanets.

ELENA GALLO
Professor of Astronomy
University of Michigan