Paula Jofré facts for kids

Paula Jofré (born in 1982) is a Chilean astronomer and astrophysicist. She is known for her amazing work studying stars. In 2019, Time Magazine named her one of their 100 Next for her research. She worked with a British anthropologist named Robert Foley. Together, they explored how stars born in the same part of the universe might be connected. They found that stars can pass on their chemical makeup, much like parents pass on DNA to their children.

About Paula Jofré

Paula Jofré was born in 1982. She is the oldest of three daughters. Her father is Chilean, and her mother is German.

Her Journey to Astronomy

Paula went to school at the Colegio Alemán de Santiago and Colegio Santa Úrsula de Vitacura. Her interest in astronomy began when her mother suggested a school project. For this project, Paula visited the National Astronomical Observatory (Chile). There, she met an astronomer named José Maza.

This meeting sparked her passion for astronomy. She later studied astronomy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. After graduating, she received a scholarship to study in Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. She then earned her Ph.D. from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Studying Stars Like Family Trees

After her studies, Paula and her family moved to France. She worked at the University of Bordeaux on projects related to the Gaia space mission. This mission helps map billions of stars in our galaxy.

Later, she became a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge at the University of Cambridge in England. While there, she met Robert Foley. They started researching what they called "star DNA."

Their research showed that stars formed from the same gas cloud have very similar chemical makeups. This is like how brothers and sisters share a lot of the same DNA. Paula, Robert, and their team even created a family tree for 21 stars that are "siblings" of our Sun. They shared their findings in 2017 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In 2017, Paula returned to Chile. She became a professor in the astronomy department at the Diego Portales University in Santiago.

What Paula Jofré Researches

Paula Jofré's research focuses on understanding our galaxy, the Milky Way. She looks closely at the light from stars to figure out what they are made of. She develops "family trees" for stars based on their chemical origins. With Robert Foley, she has studied the chemical makeup of our Sun and 21 other nearby stars. They found a special connection among them, like a genetic link, and mapped out their family relationships.

Her Life Outside of Work

Paula Jofré is married to another astronomer, Thomas Maedler. They have two children.

Recognitions and Awards

• In 2019, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people of the year.
• Science News magazine recognized her as one of the 10 most promising scientists under 40 in the world.

See also

In Spanish: Paula Jofré para niños