Lorenzo Spina

Lorenzo Spina

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, and formerly Research Fellow, Monash University

I am an astrophysicist and a data scientist of the Astronomical Observatory of Padua with 7+ years of experience in top research institutes around the globe. I study our own Galaxy: how it is structured, how it formed, and how it evolves with time. For my research I analyse huge volumes of data gathered by the largest-scale stellar surveys ever undertaken, such as Gaia, APOGEE, Gaia-ESO, and GALAH. My task is to exploit this enormous body of data to its maximum potential.

I also study chemical signatures of planet engulfment events in Sun-like stars. I in interested in knowning the rate of planetary systems that undergo a very dynamical past culminating with the fall of planets into the central star. This research sheds light on the possible evolutionary paths of planetary systems and on the probability of finding analogues of our quiet Solar System.