Welcome to my research page.


I am currently a postdoc at the Institute for Cosmology and Gravitation of the University of Portsmouth.  My interests lie in cosmology, structure formation and galaxy evolution, which I try to understand often by using galaxy’s star formation and metallicity histories.


If you’re looking for VESPA’s database, please look here.


I’m interested in the problem of recovering physical parameters from galaxies’ spectra, SNIa progenitors, the mass assembly in galaxies, large-scale structure, and non-Gaussianity in the CMB.


In September 2008 I completed my PhD at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh, under the wise supervision of Professor Alan Heavens.


I’m heavily involved in outreach and the public communication of science. By far my favourite project of recent times is Dark Sky Scotland, which expanded into Dark Sky Discovery during the International Year of Astronomy 2009.


Last 5 refereed or submitted publications (full list from ADS here):

  1. Bullet The ages of Type Ia Supernova progenitors, T. D. Brandt, R. Tojeiro, É. Aubourg, A. F. Heavens, R. Jimenez, M. A. Strauss, 2010, submitted to AJ (arXiv:1002.0848)

  2. Bullet The evolution of Luminous Red Galaxies in the  Sloan Digital Sky Survey 7th data release, R. Tojeiro, W. Percival, 2010, submitted to MNRAS (arXiv:1001.2015)

  3. Bullet A public catalogue of stellar masses, star formation and metallicity histories and dust content from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using VESPA, R.Tojeiro, S. Wilkins, A. F. Heavens, R. Jimenez, B. Panter, 2009, ApJS, 185, 1.

  4. Bullet Extragalactic constraints on the initial mass function, S. Wilkins, A. Hopkins, N. Trentham, R. Tojeiro. 2008, MNRAS, 391, 363.

  5. Bullet Evidence for short-lived SNIa progenitors, E. Aubourg, R. Tojeiro, R. Jimenez, A. Heavens, M. Strauss, D. Spergel. 2008, A&A, 492, 631.


Prizes and awards:

  1. Bullet Royal Astronomical Society Michael Penston Prize 2008; runner up - for best doctoral thesis in Astronomy or Astrophysics submitted to a UK institution.

  2. BulletRoyal Society of Edinburgh Cormack Postgraduate Prize 2007 - for best paper in Astronomy submitted by a PhD student in Scotland.

  3. BulletEmerson Prize 2004 - for best in class, MPhys Astrophysics, University of Edinburgh.


Invited talks:

  1. Bullet The dynamical evolution of Luminous Red Galaxies, CENTRA, IST, Lisbon, 28 January 2010.

  2. Bullet The dynamical evolution of Luminous Red Galaxies, CAUP, Porto, 27 January 2010.

  3. Bullet The dynamical evolution of Luminous Red Galaxies, Oxford, 7 December 2009.

  4. Bullet The dynamical evolution of Luminous Red Galaxies, IfA seminar, University of Edinburgh, 18 November 2009.

  5. BulletVESPA, galaxies and the Universe, IoA Seminars, University of Cambridge, 25 February 2009.

  6. Bullet VESPA: The present and the future, Fitting the spectral energy distribution of galaxies,  Lorentz Centre, Leiden, 17-21 November 2008.

  7. BulletVESPA: Understanding galaxies and the Universe using stellar populations, YAM@NAM2008, Queen’s University, Belfast, 3 April 2008.

  8. Bullet Every galaxy tells a story, invited seminar talk, CENTRA, Departamento de Física, IST, Lisbon, 18 December 2007 (slides)

  9. Bullet VESPA - Recovering star formation histories from galactic spectra, STAGES Meeting, University of Nottingham, 19 June 2007 (slides)

  10. Bullet Discovering the early Universe using the Cosmic Microwave Background, Postgraduate prize winner, RSE Cormack Meeting 2007, University of Strathclyde, 11 May 2007 (slides)


Other talks and conference contributions:

  1. Bullet Talk: Exploring the local Universe with VESPA, DEXV meeting, Edinburgh, 3 September 2008.

  2. Bullet Talk: Evidence for short-lived SNIa progenitors, NAM2008, Queen’s University, Belfast, 2 April  2008.

  3. Bullet Talk: Evidence for short-lived SNIa progenitors, 28 August 2007, IfA coffee talk, ROE

  4. Bullet Talk: 1st Iberian Cosmology Meeting, Porto, Portugal, 1-2 December 2006 (blackboard presentation)

  5. Bullet Poster: From Stars to Galaxies, Venice, Italy, 16-20 October 2006 (poster, proceedings)

  6. Bullet Poster: Cosmic Frontiers, Durham, UK, 31 July - 4 August 2006 (poster, proceedings)

  7. Bullet Talk: Understanding the CMB temperature power spectrum, Pedagogical Seminar, Institute for Astronomy, Edinburgh, 16 March 2006 (notes)

  8. Bullet Talk: UKCosmo Workshop, Imperial College London, 5 May 2005 (slides)


Collaborators:

Alan Heavens

Ben Panter

Raul Jimenez

Patricia Castro

Sujata Gupta

Éric Aubourg

Michael Strauss

David Spergel

Stephen Wilkins

Will Percival

Min-Su Shin


 

Rita Tojeiro