Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing

Wernher von Braun

My Research Interests

GAIA Galaxy Survey

The research project my Master's Thesis was concerned with was a study on the feasibility of galaxy observations with GAIA, a scientific satellite mission approved by the European Space Agency as Cornerstone 6 of its Horizons 2000 scientific programme, with launch expected around 2015. In this framework, in collaboration with the GAIA group at Copenhagen University Observatory, and particularly with Erik Høg, I presented a few technical to the science advisory groups established by ESA for the GAIA mission:

SAG_CUO_61 : Statistical Model of Galaxies (Vaccari & Høg, 15 Mar 1999)
SAG_CUO_69 : Simulated Observations of Galaxies with GAIA (Vaccari & Høg, 27 Aug 1999)
GAIA-CUO-104 : A Statistical Model of Galaxies (Vaccari & Høg, 30 Jan 2002)
GAIA-CUO-105 : GAIA Galaxy Survey: a multi-colour galaxy survey with GAIA (Vaccari, 1 Feb 2002)

ISO Data Reduction and Analysis with the LARI Method

My main PhD Research Project, which I've been working on from November 2001 to October 2003 at the Department of Astronomy of the University of Padova under the supervision of Alberto Franceschini, focused on the development of an innovative data reduction and analysis method devised for application to data obtained with ISOCAM and ISOPHOT, the two imaging instruments on-board ISO, the astronomical satellite jointly developed by ESA, NASA and ISAS which has operated from 1995 and 1998. This powerful technique, now known as LARI Method after its main developer, Carlo Lari, working at the Institute of Radio-Astronomy of the Italian National Research Council, in Bologna. First applied to a large-scale shallow survey like ELAIS, such method has proved very useful in the reduction of deeper fields such as the ISO 15 $\mu$m observations of the two Hubble Deep Fields and of the Lockman Hole as well.

SWIRE is the largest project within the Spitzer Legacy Science Program. It consists of a large-area survey aimed at studying infrared extragalactic populations and the history of AGN and Star Formation activity up to high redshifts.

I became a member of SWIRE Science Team in 2003 as a Post-Doc associated with Michael Rowan-Robinson's Co-I-ship. I've been working on catalogue validation, characterization of the survey selection function, LSS studies via angular colleration functions and SWIRE observations of ISO & SCUBA sources.

SPIRE is a submillimeter camera and spectrometer on-board ESA's Herschel satellite, whose launch is currently foreseen in mid-2008. My SPIRE activities include participation to:

SPIRE Instrument Control Center (ICC) : Instrument Testing, Observation Planning and Data Processing Software Development

SPIRE Science Team : High-Z and Low-Z Galaxy SAGs

Herschel (PACS & SPIRE) Open Time Key Programs : Blank-Field & Cluster Surveys

An Herschel Survey of Surveys (SOS) : Herschel Extragalactic Blank-Field Surveys

SHADES was the ultimate SCUBA extragalactic survey, undertaken by a UK-led international team using SCUBA at JCMT. I've been working on Optical+Spitzer observations and SED modelling of SHADES sources.

SCUBA2 Legacy Surveys

...

Master's Thesis

PhD Thesis

Home