5 Conclusions and outlook
5.3 Outlook
work, can be applied to simultaneously constrain UV, optical and IR spec-tra of observed galaxies with large libraries of Monte Carlo star formation histories and dust parameters. This will allow to assess the accuracy with which dust attenuation and star formation rates can be constrained based on different combinations of UV, optical and IR emission.
The calibration on nearby galaxies is essential for studying large samples of high-redshift galaxies for which more limited spectral information is available.
Moreover, bridging studies of the star formation rates and physical parame-ters of high-redshift galaxies based on their UV or IR emission will allow to derive a more consistent picture of the cosmic star formation history.
This thesis has provided the zero-point measurement of the stellar popula-tion properties of present-day galaxies, which is of fundamental relevance in order to study the evolution of such properties, and hence the processes of galaxy formation and evolution. The methodology adopted here also repre-sents a modern and powerful tool for the detailed interpretation of present and forthcoming large databases of multi-wavelength observations at higher red-shift, which will allow to directly trace back in time the evolutionary history of galaxies.
5 Conclusions and outlook
Acknowledgements
At the end of my thesis I realize that there are many people to thank for having pushed me on my way here, and many people to thank for having made these three years a challenging and extremely rich experience.
A special thank goes to my advisor St´ephane Charlot. It is hard to tell what a unique experience is to work with him, without living it. I had the chance to take the best and the hardest of working side by side with you. Thank you for your constant support since the beginning of my thesis, for involving me in several activities and for the opportunity to spend a period at IAP with an EARA fellowship. I am not ironic when I thank you for being so peaky in the tiny details of my work and, especially, my writing, and for putting me under pressure, more than what I do by myself. Of course it has not been always easy, but if I could face your critiques it is because you have also constantly and enthusiastically encouraged and trusted me.
I sincerely thank my supervisor Simon White for his deep, straight and critic insight into my science. Discussions with him always resulted in significant improvement and refinement of my work. I wish to thank him also for his support and his efficient point of view about the organization of the work, which helped me a lot in many phases of my thesis.
I warmly thank Jarle Brinchmann for his extremely precious help, funda-mental for me especially during the first period of my thesis. Much of this work could not have been done (at least not so well and quickly) without his prompt replies to all my technical questions and requests. I also thank him for offering me a different point of view and his support also in the hardest periods of my thesis.
I wish to thank other people with whom I had the opportunity to work and interact at different levels during my thesis. First of all Guinevere Kauffmann for involving me in many scientific activities, in particular in the MAGPOP network; Tim Heckman and Charles Hoopes for their help in my visit at JHU which, although very short, opened me to new perspectives for my work;
David Elbaz for his precious effort and suggestions in the preparation of a Marie Curie proposal.
During these three years I have met many people who contributed in differ-ent ways to make me enjoy much better this period. Among them I want to
Acknowledgements
mention Kate for helping me in finding home when I arrived here, Maria and Gabi for their kindness, smiles, and help in different things, Cornelia for her patience and comprehension all the times I was hopelessly looking for Simon.
I want to thank Chantal, my helping hand at IAP: I was impressed by her kindness, strength and joy of living.
All my days at work would not have been so nice without all the friends I have met at MPA. First of all my thanks go to the very special ‘extended Italian community’: Luigi and Giovanna, Gabriella, Maurilio, Veronica, Larry, Andrea, Alessia, Kalliopi, Daniele, Alessandro ‘le parisien’, Klaus. Thank you all for all the lunches, coffees, dinners and evenings together. Among them I especially thank my office-mate Debora, for making our ‘second home’ such a lively and pleasant environment. Thanks for all the laughters (with which we often entertained our neighbours..), the complaints, the satisfactions, the secrets we shared. Briefly, thanks for being such a good friend. Together with her I cannot but mention Manfred and the delightful ‘cake-breaks’ to which, unfortunately, I only passively participate. I thank him also for his excellent translation of my summary (it was so excellent that you might be asked to do others..).
My thought goes also to Roberto ‘Rb’ for his humour and sensibility; Hans-Jakob, Samir and Matteo with whom I shared the office for some periods;
Ben, Brent, Jeremy, Paula, Vivienne, Dimitri, Jakob for their nice company during the MAGPOP meetings or during their visit at IAP while I was there.
I also want to mention few people who made my three months in Paris such an unforgettable period: my office-mate Tatiana, Elisabetta, Sara, Elisabete, Rodney, Jaime, Chiara, Anthony...mais surtout merci a Jean-Christophe, avec son ‘petit bonhomme’, pour l’aide, les sourires, les gateaux aux chocolat, et beaucoup de petites et grandes choses qu’on ne peut pas expliquer.
My deep thank goes to those who have followed my three years of thesis from faraway, but making me feel constantly their support, friendship and esteem. Thanks to my special friends Alberto, Andrea, Fabrizio, Luca, Paolo, Susanna. Thanks to Elisa, Luca, Silvia, Ilaria for your sincere friendship in all these years. Special thanks to Gabriele for keeping alive such a unique relationship and trusting me always, no matter what I do.
Finally I want to thank few people for just being part of my life. Cara mamma, Stefano e Nicola, thanks for your love, for your support, trust and encouragement, for your patience, for being always with me even if we are apart, for making me feel the most welcome and important princess in the world when I come back home. Thanks pap`a because, wherever you are, you are next to me. Last but not least, thanks Stefano for helping me so much and so patiently since the beginning, for your support and love for which these words are not enough.
Curriculum vitae
Personal data
Anna Gallazzi
Born 16 November 1978 in Busto Arsizio (Varese), Italy, italian citi-zen
Current address: c/o Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748, Garching bei M¨unchen, Germany Tel.: +49 089 30000 2019
e-mail: gallazzi@mpa-garching.mpg.de
Permanent address: Via Carnia, 5, 21052 Busto Arsizio (Varese), Italy
Education and training
1992-1997 high school at “Liceo Classico Statale D.Crespi” in Busto Arsizio;
experimental courses in physics
July 1997 high school diploma (“Maturit`a Classica”) at “Liceo Classico Statale D.Crespi” in Busto Arsizio, reporting the degree of 60/60
1997-2002 Physics at Universit`a degli Studi di Milano Bicocca. Overall average score is 27.8/30.
September 27, 2002 Laurea in Fisica reporting the final score of 110/110 at Universit`a degli Studi di Milano Bicocca. The thesis “La formazione stellare attuale nelle galassie di tipo avanzato. Influenza dell’ambiente” (a study on the environmental dependence of the star formation rate in nearby late-type galaxies) was supervised by Prof. Giuseppe Gavazzi (Universit`a degli Studi di Milano Bicocca) and Prof. Monica Colpi (Universit`a degli Studi di Milano Bicocca).
February 2003-present “International Max-Planck Research School on Astrophysics” PhD fellowship at Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Astrophysik, Garching. The-sis project on the interpretation of galaxy spectra by means of the most recent population synthesis models supervised by Dr. Stephane Charlot and Prof. Dr. Simon White. The school program includes the attendance of one introductory course and three advanced courses covering all the aspects of modern astrophysics.
Curriculum vitae
Scholarships and honours
November 27, 2002 8th rank position (60 participants) in “Concorso di Dottorato di Ricerca in Fisica ed Astronomia”. Admitted to the italian PhD program (selected for PhD at the Universit`a di Milano-Bicocca/Insubria).
December 2002 3-year PhD fellowship from the “International Max-Planck Re-search School on Astrophysics” at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at, M¨unchen.
September 12 - Decem-ber 11, 2005
3-month EARA-EST fellowship at Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris.
Scientific interests
Galaxy formation and evolution Stellar populations of nearby galaxies
Galaxy physical parameters and star formation history and their en-vironmental dependence
Scaling relations of early-type galaxies Foreign languages
English very good
German basic knowledge of written and spoken language French basic knowledge of written and spoken language Publications
In refereed journals The ages and metallicities of galaxies in the local universe,Gallazzi A., Charlot S., Brinchmann J., White S.D.M., Tremonti C.A., 2005, MNRAS, 362, 41.
The colours of elliptical galaxies, Chang R.,Gallazzi A., Kauffmann G., Charlot S., Ivezi´c ˇZ., Brinchmann J., Heckman T.M., 2006, MN-RAS, 366, 717
Hαsurface photometry of galaxies in nearby clusters. V: The survey completion, Gavazzi G., Boselli A., Cortese L., Arosio I., Gallazzi A., Pedotti P., Carrasco L., 2006, A&A, 446, 839
Hα surface photometry of galaxies in the Virgo cluster. I: Observa-tions with the San Pedro Martir 2.1 m telescope., Gavazzi G., Boselli A., Pedotti P.,Gallazzi A., Carrasco L., 2002, A&A, 386, 114.
Hαsurface photometry of galaxies in the Virgo cluster IV: the current star formation in nearby clusters of galaxies., Gavazzi G., Boselli A.,