Dr. Leticia Carigi obtained the PhD at the Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomía in Mérida, Venezuela. She later joined the Instituto de Astronomía (IA) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), first as a postdoctoral fellow, and is currently a full researcher at this institute.
Dr. Carigi has held important positions at UNAM, among them the Coordination of the Postgraduate Programme in Astrophysics and the head of the Department of Science Communication at the IA. Her main research interests are Cosmochemistry, Galaxy Archaeology and Astrobiology on galactic scales.
As a teacher, Dr. Carigi has supervised several theses at bachelor, master and doctoral level; she has taught numerous undergraduate and postgraduate courses at UNAM, at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, at the University of La Laguna and at several Spanish and Latin American universities. She is also co-author of the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology and the university book ‘Astrobiology, a transdisciplinary vision of life in the Universe’.
She belongs to the National System of Researchers and is a member of the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the Mexican Society of Astrobiology and the Mexican Society of Physics. In 2010 the UNAM awarded her the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz recognition. In 2022, she was nominated by the IA for the L'Oréal-UNESCO-AMC Prize for Women in Science (Mexico) and in 2023, for the National University Prize in the area of research in the exact sciences.
In the area of science popularisation, she has carried out a hundred activities aimed at audiences of all ages. She has written chapters in books and magazines. She has been a consultant for planetariums, museum halls, amateur astronomers' groups, films, documentaries, videos and newspaper articles. She has organised astronomical calendars, exhibitions and workshops. She has participated in several debates on science fiction and science films.
Interested in environmental issues, she is a member of the University Commission for Sustainability, UNAM. She also works for the inclusion of women in the exact sciences, mathematics and engineering, and belongs to the Mentoring Network ‘NiñaSTEAM Pueden’.
Dr. Leticia Carigi is a world expert in chemical evolution modelling and has a history of close collaborations with IAC research applicants over the years. The objectives of her visit are focused on the Milky Way and Local Group: (1) To develop chemical evolution models to constrain the events that led to the star formation history of the Milky Way. (2) To test the Initial Integrated Mass Function in the Galaxy and some satellites of the Milky Way.
During her visit to the IAC, she will also participate with the ionised nebulae group, fostering an ongoing collaboration spanning more than 20 years. She will focus on adapting chemical evolution models to accurately replicate the complex chemical abundances in HII regions.
