Astronomer and astrophysicist
Paula Jofré is a Chilean astronomer and astrophysicist. She is also one of the world’s 100 most influential people, according to Time magazine, and has twice been featured by Science News. Jofré is an Assistant Professor with the Astronomy Nucleus at Universidad Diego Portales (UDP). She studied astronomy at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and earned her doctorate in Natural Sciences from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany. She spent seven years working as a postdoctoral researcher, first at the Astrophysics Laboratory at the University of Bordeaux in France, and then at the Institute of Astronomy and King’s College at Cambridge University, in the United Kingdom.
Paula Jofré is a leading global expert in galactic astronomy, focusing on the analysis of stellar spectra to understand the physical processes that shape the Milky Way. She was chosen one of 100 Women Leaders in Chile by El Mercurio and Mujeres Empresarias in 2011 and 2018, was named one of 10 Scientists to Watch by Science News in 2018 and was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Next in 2019. She directs the UDP’s Galactic Phylogeny research group and the SDSS-V’s Abundances working group.
Her most recent book, “Fósiles del cosmos: descifrando la historia de la Vía Láctea” (Fossils of the cosmos: deciphering the history of the Milky Way), published in 2022, recounts the evolution of the Milky Way, exploring some mysteries of the cosmos and highlighting the work of 36 scientists around the globe.
