Alessandra Candian is an Assistant Professor with special enphasis on teaching at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a Msc in Physics at Universitá degli studi di Padova (Italy) and a PhD in Astrophysical Chemistry at the University of Nottingham (UK). In 2012 she joined the Leiden Observatory first as a postdoctoral reasearcher and then as a VENI laureate (2016). In 2019 she moved to the University of Amsterdam, where she worked as an Assistant Research Professor at the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS). In 2021 she was hired as Open Science and Academic Skills teacher at TU Delft before joining the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy in 2022.
Alessandra is interested in the properties of carbon-containing molecules in space and other planets. She has a strongly multidisciplinary and collaborative approach involving theoretical chemistry calculations, modelling, experiments and astronomical observations. The main goal of her research is to answer key questions about the formation and evolution of carbonaceous molecules in the Interstellar medium and in the atmosphere of celestial bodies like Titan. You can read more about this in her website and in this article.
In addition to be a Guest Lecturer for interdisciplinary course such as "How to design an alien" and "Big History", Alessandra is coordinating the InterSpecial educational initiative.
Astrochemistry, Planetary sciences, Star and planet formation; Interdisciplinary Research and Education