Professor Cristina C. Popescu

Cristina is a Professor of Astrophysics in the UCLan's Jeremiah Horrocks Institute. She serves as Research Degrees Tutor for the School of Natural Sciences and is the PI of the STFC studentship grants. Cristina is a member of UCLan's Research Degrees Board. She is Director of Studies for MSc and PhD students and supervisor of undergraduate astrophysics projects. Cristina is the President of the International Astronomical Union's Comission J1. She is a referee for all major peer reviewed journals in the field: Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical Journal, Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Advances in Space Research.

Cristina Popescu has pioneered and developed the field of self-consistent modelling of the spectral energy distribution of galaxies. Her models encapsulate the fundamental physical processes responsible for the distribution of stars, gas and dust in galaxies. She has been at the forefront of interfacing the models she developed to large observational databases. This has allowed her to address, and answer, some of the biggest questions related to how galaxies form and evolve. Cristina wrote over 200 papers with over 10000 citations and has an h-index of 55. For a full list of publications see here.

Cristina Popescu was in the SOC of “The GALEX Fest - Exploring the UV Universe”, 4-7 Sept. 2012, Pasadena, California, USA. She was a panel member for the conference summary of the IAU meeting “Star formation indicators across the electromagnetic spectrum”, 27-30 August 2012, Beijing, China Cristina Popescu was the proposer and chair (jointly with Dr. R. Tuffs from the MPI Kernphysik) of the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC) of the International Astronomical Union Symposium 284, “The Spectral Energy Distribution of Galaxies”, held between 5-12 of September 2011 at UCLan. She was the co-chair of the SOC of the international conference “Hunting for the Dark: The Hidden Side of Galaxy Formation”, 19-23 October 2009, Malta and the co-chair of the SOC of the international workshop “The Spectral Energy Distribution of Gas-Rich Galaxies: Confronting Models with Data”, 4-8 October 2004, Heidelberg, Germany. Cristina is not only a researcher, but also a teacher, a lecturer and a communicator of knowledge. Whether she taught astrophysics, physics or maths courses, whether for on-campus or distant learning students, whether for UCLan students or students at international prestigious research schools, her goal is to make an outstanding contribution to the enhancement of student learning. In her present position within the International Astronomical Union she now has the possibility to influence the formation of a new generation of graduate students at the international level. She gives recommendations for the selection of the IAU prize for the best PhD thesis.