Professor Amelie Saintonge

Amelie Saintonge is a Professor of Astrophysics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

When did you take up this position? What was your position beforehand?

I started at UCL as a Lecturer in Astrophysics and Royal Society Research Fellow in September 2013. Previous to that, I was a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.   

I am originally from Canada where I did my undergraduate studies in Mathematics and Physics at the University of Montreal, and have also lived in the United States for my PhD studies at Cornell University, and in Switzerland where I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Zurich. 

Tell us about your work at UCL - how do you spend your days, and what makes your role different to similar positions elsewhere?  

Every day is different, which is big part of what I like about being an academic. The balance between teaching, research and administrative work varies across the year as well. 

My research concerns the formation and evolution of galaxies. In particular, my group and I are focussed on studying the interstellar medium, which is the tenuous mix of gas and dust grains that fills the space between stars in galaxies.  

Since new stars are born out of this interstellar material, this kind of research gives us insights into what triggers or suppresses the formation of stars, which is how galaxies grow and evolve over time.  

To really understand how galaxies work, we need to study in detail physical processes that take place over huge ranges of spatial and time scales; multi-scale problems in all of physics are infamously difficult to solve, but I do like the challenge! 

I particularly enjoy involving undergraduate and postgraduate students in this research work. I always make sure each group member has a distinct research project that best suits their skills and interests, but when put together, all these different lines of research contribute towards answering some big questions. 

For example, at the moment, one of the big questions we are trying to answer are how the galaxies we observe with our telescope connect to the underlying extensive filamentary scaffolding of dark matter which permeates the Universe. 

In terms of teaching, I enjoy thinking about how best to engage students with the course contents and make sure they not only learn about the theory, but also about how the topic connects with other branches of physics, and how it I can be applied to state-of-the-art research (especially that which is happening right here at UCL!)

More and more, a lot of my time also goes to high level activities related to science management and policy. This, for example, means serving on various committees with national and international organisations and funding agencies like UKRI and the Royal Society.  

A particularly challenging but rewarding task recently was to serve as the editor in chief of the Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap for the next decade of European Astronomy. Through responsibilities like these, I love how my position at UCL enables me to shape research agendas well beyond the reach of my own research group. 

What are some of your favourite things about working at UCL? How have you found it different to previous jobs?

The best thing about UCL is the opportunity to work with brilliant colleagues and students. Compared to previous jobs, where I was mostly in charge of my own research but not much more, the work here at UCL is much broader.

It took a while to adjust to the fact that I was no longer going to be the one doing all of my research directly in a very hands-on manner, but I now take great pleasure in instead enabling other people (students in particular) to conduct this research. 

Can you tell us about any upcoming research, or future projects that you're looking forward to working?

I am currently very excited about a new project which is just kicking off right now. We were recently awarded time to use the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA), a giant radio telescope located in the high-altitude Atacama desert of Northern Chile. 

This project, which we named KILOGAS, will provide us with new data that should really allow us to understand why some galaxies are better than others at forming new stars, which is a very big open question at the moment. 

I am also really looking forward in the next year to seeing the first data from the 4MOST instrument. This is an exciting project for UCL, because some of the delicate optics that make this state-of-the-art facility possible were designed and assembled right here in our labs. 

With this instrument, we will obtain accurate distances to galaxies that will allow us to map out the dark matter distribution in the universe, and how this influences the growth and evolution of galaxies. 

On a longer timescale, I am also looking forward to continuing to work on the design study of the AtLAST telescope. This telescope will take another 10 years to become a reality, but it would be game-changing for our understanding of star and galaxy formation. 

In addition to the science, the project is exciting as it is the first ever major Astronomical facility which we are designing right from the beginning to be fully powered by renewable energy. It is very inspiring to be working on such a forward-looking project. 

Finally, tell us about your non-work life. Do you have any hobbies, or favourite places to go in London?

I am a classically trained musician, and as a student even had a side career as a chamber music singer. There’s no time for that anymore with work and family life, but in the past few years, I have gotten involved with an amateur opera company, and really enjoy the challenge of performing fully staged operas, it’s a perfect change of pace from the work day.   

I also love that UCL is so centrally located, in the heart of London, and try to take advantage of that. The British Museum in particular is one of my favourite places in London; especially during my first years working at UCL, I happily spent many many hours in the member’s cafe there, looking down over the Great Court and some of the artefacts while writing lecture notes or research papers!