Professorship marks the ticking off of an important milestone for Silvestri
appointment
Alessandra Silvestri has been appointed professor in Theoretical Physics in the area of Cosmology. For her this promotion in Leiden is the icing on the cake. ‘But there are many more boxes I would like to tick.’
What are your plans in research? For instance, does this mean you can expand your scope?
Silvestri: ‘I am a theoretical cosmologist, and my real passion and interest are in using cosmological data to test fundamental physics. Through the past years, I have been involved both in theoretical and observational aspects of this endeavors, with a focus on the late-time universe, for example the last 5 billions years over which the expansions started to speed up, contrarily to our expectations. I am an active, and proud member of the Euclid mission, for which I currently serve as one of the Science Coordinators for Core Cosmology.
Euclid is out there in space, it will be taking wonderful data for the next five years, keeping us very busy. I cannot wait to unveil the physics behind these data. I do not think that being a full professor has a direct impact on the research scope, but I would be happy to be wrong on this. What helps in that direction, is securing grants. I luckily secured a big one last year, and I can already appreciate by how much we could expand the scope of the research in my group. Perhaps being a full professor will further strengthen my future grant applications.’
How do you feel about your promotion? What does it mean to you as an individual?
‘Of course I am happy, as everybody would be with any promotion. Compared to previous promotions, like the one to Associate Professor, this comes with the added feeling of having finally achieved the goal I had set myself in terms of my academic career. And the icing on the cake is that I was lucky and also worked hard to achieve this at a prestigious place like Leiden University. Here the physics department has a long historical tradition which makes me feel very humble.
As I jokingly said to the students and postdocs in my group, I can now retire, retrieve to a mountain hut and enjoy nature. Kidding aside, it feels like I have ticked a box. Of course, there are many more boxes I would like to tick. Life is a living process, there are always new milestones and challenges waiting for you.’
What are you looking forward to the most?
‘The love for Physics of course, but more specifically for research, for exploring the unknown and answering open questions is what brought me to this career. So, I always look forward to having more time to do research. Not sure if a full professorship will make it easier or harder, though.
As a professor, what makes me even more enthusiastic is to address open challenges with a vibrant and motivated research group. That is something I always look forward to, having a big and highly motivated research group. Another thing that I particularly enjoy is outreach activities directed to young students, in example elementary school pupils. That is the crucial age where biases form in their mind, so I find it very important and rewarding to talk to them about science. And cosmology, Euclid in particular, makes it easy.