In order to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the Institute of Cosmos Sciences releases each day of this week one piece on one of its most renowned researchers.

Today we look into Francesca Figueras research:

Position: Associate Professor

Field: Galaxy Structure and Evolution

Research: Francesca has specialized in the analysis of the movement and physical properties of the stars of the disk of our galaxy with the aim of discovering the mechanisms capable of generating the observed spiral structures. Since 1997 he has been actively participating in the Gaia mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). This satellite is currently continuously observing one billion stars of our galaxy, 1% of its stellar content. She is been actively involved since the begining of the project with the GDAAS (Gaia Data Access and Analysis Study) Phase II, and at present on the validation of the Gaia data (CU9). In 2009 she coordinated "Ella és una astrònoma", in the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy. Francesca is currently the president of the Spanish Astronomy Society.