Joana Oliveira

Biography

I was born in Porto, Portugal where I also studied for my undergraduate and masters degree. My PhD research was performed at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands and I received my degree in Astrophysics from the University of Porto in 2001. My thesis topic was stellar variability both on young and evolved stars. From 2001 to 2009 I was a post-doctoral research assistant in the Astrophysics Group. I have been a lecturer since 2009, and senior lecturer since 2018.

Research and scholarship

My main topic of research is Star Formation, in particularly the impact of the environment on the formation of stars. A significant fraction of my research is dedicated to investigate the effects of metallicity (or metal content) on the early stages of stellar evolution, concentrating on the Magellanic Clouds, our nearest templates for low-metallicity environments. I am also studying young stellar populations in other spiral galaxies in the Local Group. I am involved in several large international surveys using state of the art instrumentation: SMCSAGE, SAGE-IRS and SMC-Spec with the Spitzer Space Telescope, VMC, a VISTA survey, The Herschel Space Observatory, ALMA - Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array etc.

Teaching

Year 1

• Problem classes 
• Second semester modules: Electricity and Stellar structure and Introduction to Astronomy and Stellar Structure

Year 2

• First semester module: Optics and Thermodynamics
• Astro lab (2nd semester)