Prof. Marialuisa Aliotta
PI of the NUCLEAR project
Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh (UK)
Email: m.aliotta@ed.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 131 650 5256
webpage: https://marialuisaaliotta.com
Orchid ID: 0000-0002-3136-9324
Background
Marialuisa was born in Italy and holds a dual Italian-British citizenship. She graduated in Physics (summa cum laude) from the University in Catania (Italy) in 1993 and received her PhD in Physics in 1999. She then moved to the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany) as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in the group of Prof. Claus Rolfs, one of the leading figure in nuclear astrophysics. In September 2021, she was appointed to a permanent lectureship at the University of Edinburgh (UK) where I remained since. Marialuisa was promoted to Full Professor in 2016 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022. She is currently the Head of the Nuclear Physics Group. For a full CV, please click here.
Research Interests
Marialuisa’s research interest are in the experimental investigation of nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest. She have proposed and led experiments at international radioactive ion beam facilities, such as TRIUMF (Canada), GANIL (France), and CERN (Switzerland). In 2010, she joined the LUNA (Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics) Collaboration, for the study of low-energy nuclear reactions with stable nuclei. For her work at LUNA, she received the Giuseppe Occhialini Medal and Prize, jointly awarded by the Institue of Physics (UK) and the Italian Physical Society.
Research and Professional Networks
Marialuisa has been a member of the LUNA Collaboration and the UK lead on the Collaboration Board since 2010. She served on the Steering Committee of IReNA (International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics), and on the Joint Scientific Council of GSI/FAIR. She has been chairing the Experimental Evaluation Committee of TRIUMF until July 2024. Since 2021, she closely collaborates with Prof. Michael Wiescher and his group at Notre Dame University, US.
Coaching and Mentoring
Inspired by the challenges faced by early career scientists, especially of women and minorities in STEM subjects, I have established a successful coaching business (Academic Life), through which I further support aspiring academics from all over the world with the provision of online courses, workshops, and individual/group coaching programmes tailored around the specific needs of my mentees. My training has reached over 350 clients from various disciplines, including social sciences and performing arts. Over the last 10 years, I have also been delivering workshops on academic writing and research publishing at universities across Scotland (Dundee, St Andrews, Strathclyde, Paisley, University of West Scotland), at the National Physics Laboratory in England, and at various universities overseas (Italy, Germany, US). For Taylor & Francis, Marialuisa has also published a book on “Mastering Academic Writing in the Sciences: A Step-by-Step Guide”, available on Amazon and Routledge.
